STKIGIDAE 



40s 



and Java, is a somewhat similarly coloured bird to the last-named, 

 and utters a single reiterated note. The habits are unknown. 



Nyctcda tengmahni, Tengmalm's Owl, inhabits the forests of 

 Northern and Central Europe, Siberia, and Arctic America ; it 

 has brown upper parts barred and mottled with white, and whitish 

 lower surface banded and streaked with brown ; the facial discs 

 are fairly complete, the legs feathered to the end of the toes. 

 Only partially nocturnal, it utters a soft whistle or bell-like note, 

 feeds on small rodents, birds, and beetles, and lays from four to 

 six, or exceptionally ten, eggs in holes in trees. Its only 

 congener, X. acadica, called the Saw-whet Owl from its grating 

 cry, occurs in America from Mexico northwards. 



Syrnium ahico, the Tawny, Brown, or Wood-Owl of Great 

 Britain — not found in Ireland — ranges through most of Europe 

 and Xorthern Africa to Palestine, and it is said to Tibet ; the 

 colour above is grey and brown, with white spots on the wing- 

 coverts and tip to the tail; the lower parts being rufous- white, 

 mottled and streaked with brown. The perfect facial discs are 

 greyish, the legs are feathered to the claws. A rufous phase is 

 even more common in this country. It is an arboreal and 

 entirely nocturnal species, which makes the woodlands ring with 

 its note in the autumn gloaming, and less frequently in the 

 morning; the sound resembling hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo once or twice 

 repeated, rather than the Shakespearean tu-whit, to-who. Sur- 

 face-swimming fish vary the usual diet. From the middle of March 

 onwards three or four large oval eggs are deposited in hollow 

 trees or deserted nests of other birds ; or even in caves, lofts, and 

 rabbit-burrows, though trees may be near to hand ; sometimes 

 a scanty lining of twigs, grass, down, feathers, or fur is added. 

 This genus, with about thirty species, extends over nearly the 

 whole globe, except Madagascar and the Australian Eegion ; some 

 of the best known members being the northern >S'. lapponicum, 

 the Lapp Owl, and its American race ^S*. cinereum — much larger 

 and greyer birds than S. aluco, with curious concentrically marked 

 facial disks — and the whiter broadly streaked S. urcdense of 

 Northern and Central Europe and Siberia, which is said at times 

 to bleat like a goat. India furnishes S. nivicola and S. newarense 

 of the Himalayas, S. ocellatum and *S'. indranee, the last-named 

 extending to the Malay Peninsula ; ^S". sinense occurs in that dis- 

 trict Burma, Cochin China and Java, S. leptogrammicum in Borneo. 



