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Major Irby sent me a fine adult male alive, which was caught in one of the galleries on the Rock 

 of Gibraltar, and subsequently two young birds taken from a nest in the mountains not far from 

 that place. I frequently heard the cry of this species in the Pyrenees of Aragon in the spring of 

 1867;" and Mr. Howard Saunders records it as "resident in every mountain-range. I often saw 

 this species in the Gaitanes ; and I obtained three young ones from a nest there. It appears to 

 be abundant in the Eastern Pyrenees, and is probably so throughout the whole range. Dr. Com- 

 panyo, of Perpignan, records having found two young ones nearly full-feathered so early as the 

 month of March ; and he also states that the flesh of this species is white, tender, and of an 

 agreeable taste." It is not uncommon in some portions of Switzerland, more especially in the 

 rugged mountain-districts where there is tolerably good cover. 



Salvadori records it as found throughout Italy ; and in the days of Savi some individuals 

 appear to have taken up their abode on the dome of the cathedral at Florence. According to 

 Doderlein it " is not uncommon in suitable situations throughout Sicily, and has several times 

 been noticed in the immediate neighbourhood of Palermo." Professor Doderlein remarks that 

 Sicilian specimens are of rather smaller dimensions than those from the continent. 



Salvadori states that it is not found in Sardinia, but it occurs in most parts of Southern 

 Europe bordering the Mediterranean. Lord Lilford, writing on the ornithology of the Ionian 

 Islands, says : — " I very often heard, and occasionally saw, birds of this species in Epirus and 

 Albania proper, in which provinces it is common, and breeds. One of our party killed a fine 

 specimen near Prevesa, on the Gulf of Arta, in March 1857. I shot a female near Butrinto in 

 February 1858, and was at the death of another near Santa Quaranta shortly afterwards. I was 

 watching a pair of Bonelli's Eagles one day near Butrinto, when an Eagle Owl came flying past 

 me in a much more hurried manner than is its wont, and took refuge in a thorn-bush, about a 

 gunshot from where I stood. He had hardly reached this shelter before a Peregrine Falcon 

 stooped at him, and, just missing him, rose and ' made her point.' 1 drove the Owl out, and I 

 witnessed a beautiful flight across an open plain of considerable extent — the Falcon making 

 repeated feints, the Owl flying low, and dodging round the scanty thorn-bushes, till he at length 

 reached a hill-side thickly covered with wild olives, amongst which he plunged, and set his 

 pursuer at defiance. The Albanian and Greek specimens of this Owl which I have examined 

 struck me as much lighter-coloured and rather smaller than those from Spain, Sicily, France, 

 Germany, and Norway." Lindermayer writes that in Greece it is " common in the Peloponnesus 

 and Rumelia, but does not appear to occur on the Cyclades, though common on Eubcea ;" and 

 Mr. H. Seebohm informs me that it " is found all the year round both in Asia Minor and Greece. 

 It cannot be said to be a common bird ; but during the month I spent in the Parnassus I suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining male, female, and egg. The latter proved to be rotten, but not in the least 

 degree discoloured externally. They breed in March in holes in rocks, making little or no nest. 

 My Greek servant, Costa, told me he had never found more than three eggs in one nest." 



As previously stated, it is not rare in Southern Germany. Seidensacher obtained specimens 

 at Tiiffer, in Styria. Fritsch records it as breeding regularly in Bohemia, nesting in rocks or 

 old ruins. Amongst the places which are regularly occupied by this Owl during the nesting- 

 season he enumerates the following : — Stechovic ; the Babafelsen in the Altthiergarten near 

 Frauenberg ; the rocks of Karvanice in the Burgholtz district, near Frauenberg ; the ruins of 



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