STRIGIDA. 307 
THE SCOPS-OWL. 
Scéps civ (Scopoli). 
This Owl, the smallest which occurs in the British Islands, was 
first noticed as a visitor in the spring of 1805, when specimens 
were obtained in Yorkshire. Since that time examples have been 
recorded from Northamptonshire, Essex, Middlesex, Bucks, Berks, 
Wilts, Cornwall, Pembrokeshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumber- 
land ; four occurrences are authenticated in Norfolk, and there are 
records from the south-east of Yorkshire. The often-repeated story 
of the breeding of the Scops-Owl at Castle-Eden Dene in Durham 
is untrue. One was killed in Sutherland late in May 1854 ; the late 
Col. Drummond-Hay has recorded a pair shot at Scone in May 1864 ; 
Mr. G. Sim says that one was picked up dead near Kintore on 
September znd 1891 ; and one was taken alive at the lighthouse 
on North Ronaldshay, Orkneys, on June 2nd 1892. In Ireland one 
was killed in co. Meath in 1837, one in Wexford in the spring of 
1847, a third near Belfast in November 1883, and a fourth in 
Wexford on May 31st 1889. 
The Scops-Owl is only a summer-visitor even to the temperate 
portions of Europe, exceptionally extending its migrations to 
Heligoland (once), Holland, Belgium, Northern France and Switzer- 
land. South of the Alps and Carpathians it is not uncommon ; 
while in Southern France, the Spanish Peninsula, Italy, and east- 
ward to Greece, Turkey and Southern Russia, it becomes abundant. 
BB 2 
