TENGMALM'S OWL. 165 



differ from skins from South Sweden. This species breeds in the pine- 

 forests of Europe aud Asia south of the Arctic circle. In Northern France, 

 Germany, Southern Scandinavia, and Central Russia it is principally found 

 in winter. It is said to breed in the Alps and the Carpathians ; but there 

 is no reliable authority for its occurrence either in the Pyrenees or the 

 Caucasus. In Lapland it breeds up to lat. 68° ; in the Ural Mountains it 

 has not been found further north than lat. 59° ; but Dr. Finsch obtained it 

 on the Obb in lat. 61°. Sharpe and Dresser copy Shelley's error in 

 assigning Egypt as a locality for this species * On the American con- 

 tinent its range is very similar, extending during the breeding-season 

 nearly up to the Arctic circle from Alaska to Labrador. It occasionally 

 appears in winter in the most northerly of the United States. 



Tengmalm's Owl has no very near ally in Europe ; but on the American 

 continent it is represented in the central and southern portions of the 

 Nearctic Region by Strix acadlca (the Saw-whet Owl), a somewhat smaller 

 bird, having much less white on the upper parts, with the forehead streaked 

 instead of spotted with white, and having only three white bars instead of 

 five on the tail. The capture of a bird of this species was rec(jrded in the 

 ' Zoologist ' (1860, p. 7104) by Sir W. Milner, not far from Beverley in 

 Yorkshire. The species may have been wrongly determined ; or, if the 

 identification was correct, it may have been an escaped bird. 



Tengmalm's Owl is principally confined to the pine-region; and very 

 little is recorded of its habits. South of the Arctic circle it is said to be 

 a strictly nocturnal bird. ATheelwright states that he rarely went out 

 into the forest near Quickjock on any night without seeing this pretty 

 little Owl hawkiug after its prey. In that latitude, however, there is 

 scarcely any difference between night and day. For some weeks in summer 

 the sun never sets, and during the whole twenty-four hours brilliant sun- 

 shine is the rule rather than the exception. All that can be said is that 

 Tengmalm's Owl does not appear to be incommoded by the light, but 

 nevertheless prefers the midnight sun to that of midday. 



This bird is a very early breeder : and even in lat. 67° Wheelwright's eggs 

 ivere all takcu l)etween the 2nd and the 13th of May ; whilst at Muoniovara, 

 a degree still further to the north, WoUey obtained eggs between the 18th 

 of ilay and the 2nd of June, and received them from a little further north 

 between the 1st and the 27th of .June. Wheelwright describes its call-note 

 as a very musical, soft whistle, never heard except in the evening and at 

 night. Its food consists of mice, beetles, and small birds. Wheelwright 

 says that it i>i a bold voracious little bird, and that one night he shot a 

 female in full chase of a lemming on a frozen lake. 



Tengmalm's Owl is said not to build any nest. The eggs are laid in 



* In the Cat. B. Brit. Mus. ii. p, ]G0, Sharpe includes the specimen upon which this 

 statement was founded in the list of examples of Carim- rjhiijj: 



