308 SCOPS-OWL. 
In fact, it is found in summer as far north as the grape annually 
ripens, but it is most numerous in those warmer countries in 
which the olive-tree also grows, though there it may ascend to 
elevations far above the oil-producing zone. On migration, numbers 
are taken in Malta and served at table (Lilford). In the Mediter- 
ranean basin it appears to be to some extent resident, as it is also in 
portions of Northern Africa; but the majority pass onward, to winter 
in Abyssinia and Senaar. Our Scops-Owl is common in summer in 
Asia Minor, Palestine, Persia and Turkestan ; but in the Indian and 
African regions it has several representatives of greater or less specific 
distinctness. 
About the middle of May this Owl usually lays its white eggs 
(5-6 in number and measuring about 1°25 by 1 in.) in some hollow 
cork- or olive-tree, though elms, poplars and willows are used ; 
sometimes, however, it resorts to a hole in a wall or a roof; while 
in the south of France it is said to make use of old Magpies’ nests. 
It is partial to cork- and olive-woods as well as to groves of trees on 
the banks of rivers ; and its note may frequently be. heard in the 
gardens of large cities, such as Seville and Florence. To my ear, 
its cry is a clear, metallic, ringing 22-o~w—whence the Italian names 
Chit or Cit. This Owl is particularly nocturnal, and, although it 
can face the sunlight, yet, except when disturbed, I never saw it on 
the wing in the day-time, during which it remains perched across a 
branch, often close to the stem. It then resembles, beneath the 
shady foliage, some gnarled stump or knot, but, on a tap being given 
to the trunk, this supposed knot will be seen to shoot up to double 
its former height and exhibit a pair of ear-tufts. So abundant is 
this quaint little bird on the wood-fringed banks of the Tagus and the 
Jarama that I have found over a score in an afternoon’s ramble. 
It feeds on beetles, grasshoppers, large moths and other insects ; 
perhaps also on mice and small birds, but it is chiefly insectivorous. 
The general colour of the plumage is grey, with a dark centre to 
each feather and vermiculations of various shades of brown ; facial 
disk incomplete above the eyes; ear-tufts conspicuous when erected; 
legs feathered, but feet bare ; beak black ; irides yellow ; operculum 
wanting. Length: male 7°5 in., wing 5‘8in.; female 8 in., wing 
6‘rin. The female is often rather more rufous than the male, while 
the young are decidedly so. 
Examples of the American Scofs asto are said to have been 
obtained in Yorkshire and Norfolk, but no credence need be attached 
to these statements. 
