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year I succeeded in finding a nest, with three fresh eggs, in a large hole in the trunk of 

 an oak. 



" Two of the eggs are roundish, the third elongated, tapering equally towards each end ; 

 they have a rather polished shell, with deep, distinct pores, placed away from each other, are 

 clear white in colour, like those of the Little Owl (Athene noctua), without any tinge of brown 

 or yellow, as are most of the eggs of the Scops Owl (Strix scops). 



"They weighed 2 Quentchen 37, 23, and 37 grains respectively, and when blown 11, lOf, 

 and 10^ grains ; and the round eggs measured 31 \ and 30 millims. by 26 and 25 millims., whereas 

 the long egg measured 32 by 25 millims. They are smaller and lighter than the smallest eggs 

 of the Scops Owl, as these latter weigh from 2 Quentchen 50 grains to 3 Quentchen 48 grains, 

 and only exceptionally less than 2 Quentchen 50 grains; and the diameter is always either in 

 length or breadth larger than in the eggs of the Least Owl (Strix passerine/)." 



One of the three eggs of the Sparrow-Owl above referred to, in the collection of Mr. Dresser, 

 is now before us, and we cannot add any thing to Seidensacher's careful description. The other 

 two, we believe, are in the collection of Baron von Konig Warthausen, who procured them from 

 the above-named collector. 



Bailly, in his interesting work on the Ornithology of Savoy, has given the following 

 details : — 



" It is a very rare bird in Savoy, where it is found only in the highest forests of the Alps, in 

 the pine and fir woods, from which it wanders only to a very little distance, even in winter. The 

 deep forests of Villaremberg and Albiez-le-Jeune, in the province of Maurienne, are tenanted by 

 it all the year; and the poachers who go there in the autumn in pursuit of Thrushes and Black- 

 birds sometimes kill it in mistake for a Thrush in the gloaming, when it commences to pursue 

 its nocturnal diversions. It is, indeed, not larger than a Blackbird or Redwing, vulgarly called 

 in Savoy Quilon or Quilet. M. Berthond, an apothecary at Montmeillant, gave me, in July 1849, 

 a specimen of the Sparrow-Owl, which had been sent to him from Bochette. We must suppose, 

 therefore, that the forests of Saint-Hugon and those of the Alps above Bochette also contain this 

 Owl. M. Edmond Fairmaire, of Paris, informed me in 1850 of the capture of three specimens 

 in the Canton of Vallais, in Switzerland, which were sent to him to be prepared." The 

 author then proceeds to say that he knew nothing personally of its breeding-habits, but that the 

 accounts given him by different hunters were to the effect that it nested in little naturally formed 

 holes in rotten fir trees, that the brood consisted of five or six individuals, which were fed by the 

 old birds on mice and grasshoppers, which they hunted for in the underwood, also on Moths and 

 Bats, which they pursued and seized on the wing along the outskirts of woods, in the twilight, 

 and at the time when the Thrushes enter the depths of the forests to seek a refuge for the 

 night. 



Lord Lilford also kindly informs us that he knew of a specimen being killed at Lausanne in 

 the winter of 1850-51. 



Mr. Howard Saunders has recorded the existence of two supposed specimens in the Museum 

 of Catania, in Sicily ; and having been assured by Professor Zucarello-Patti that he had preserved 

 these two out of seven specimens obtained in the flesh many years previously, he could certainly 

 have attributed them to no other European species. Count Salvadori has since identified them 



