30 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



1843 ; and another from Stanmer Park, obtained in the 

 same year. 



Mr. JefFery, in his private notes, mentions that on the 4th 

 of March, 1860, he saw ten or twelve of these birds in a 

 yew tree at Kingley Vale, and records in the ' Zoologist,' for 

 1881 (p. 49), that on the 10th of December, ' 1880, a great 

 many had been brought to a birdstuffer at Chichester. 

 In Mr. Gordon's ' History of H arting ' it is mentioned 

 that the eggs of this species were found in the deserted nest 

 of a crow on West Harting Down {vide p. 353). 



SHOKT-EAEED OWL. 



Asio acci^itrinus. 



I HAVE in my collection three specimens, all shSt by myself, 

 viz., one on Henfield Common, October 13th, 1839; another 

 at Hough Wood in September 1841 ; and a third at Rye 

 Farm, Henfield, while flying close to the ground. Together 

 with this bird I also shot a hare in its form (or seat, as it is 

 more usually called by Sussex farmers and sportsmen), just 

 beyond it : this was in October 1841. I have often met with 

 this bird in the turnip fields and in the stubbles, which were 

 formerly left in Sussex, sometimes even to rot on the 

 ground, but which now, unfortunately for the parti'idge- 

 shooters, may be called non-existent, all corn being cut close 

 to the ground from the first. I once, but only once in this 

 county, put up about forty, from a turnip field, though I have 

 several times in Cambridgeshire seen similar numbers to- 

 gether, probably whole fiights on their immigration. 



In 1841, I saw a Short-eared Owl, shot near Henfield on 

 the 16th of September, by Mr. A. Smith, which contained 

 the remains of two Skylarks and a short-tailed field vole. 



