LITTLE OWL. 175 



broad daylight. I first made its acquaintance near Smyrna^ where it was 

 very common. We did not very often see it; but now and then wc caught 

 a glimpse of it, flying from one tree to another, near the villages that 

 nestled on the mountain-sides overlooking the flat plains through which 

 the river winds amongst the olive-groves and vineyards. The flight of the 

 Little Owl reminded mc very much of that of a Bat. It was not an undu- 

 lating flight, but a steady slow beating of the wings without any apparent 

 exertion; and yet there was a butterfly-like uncertainty about it, as if it 

 continually changed its mind and slightly altered its cou.rse. The flight 

 was very silent, occasionally very rapid ; and I remember seeing it skim 

 over a tree like a Partridge. In Holland I once watched a Little Owl 

 flying in the garden behind the inn at A^alconsward. A boy had caught 

 it on the nest, and brou.ght it to us with one egg and three young ones — 

 the latter only a few days old, aud covered with short pure white down 

 not unlike the fur of a mole. We did not want the old bird; so we let 

 her go in the garden. She had scarcely got more than forty yards from 

 us when she was pursued by a mob of Starlings, Swallows, and other 

 birds, fi-om whom she soon took refuge in a chestnut-tree, to the evident 

 annoyance of a Chaffinch, who immediately began to tipink spink in a most 

 excited way. At Athens it was very common on the Acropolis, and was 

 evidently breeding in holes in the rocks and ruins. In the Parnassus we 

 often heard its curious note cuc-koo-vah!-ee, cuc-koo-vah! -ee , and were told 

 that it remained there all the year. It feeds on small birds, mice, grass- 

 hoppers, cockchafers, moths, beetles, &c., which it catches both on the 

 wing and on the ground. It may be seen perched on a tree, a rock, or on 

 the roof of a house. It is a somewhat early breeder ; and fresh eggs may 

 be obtained from the middle of April to the middle of May. The situa- 

 tion of the nest, which is a mere scratch round of whatever rubbish may 

 be accidentally collected on the spot, is varied. Sometimes it is in a hollow 

 tree, sometimes in a cleft of a rock, sometimes in the roof of a house ; and 

 I have seen it under the roots of a tree. The number of eggs varies from 

 four to six ; they are pure white in colour, oval in form, and measure from 

 1-4 to 135 inch in length, aud from 1'15 to 1'08 inch in breadth. 



The Little Owl has the upper parts greyish brown, striped on the head 

 and spotted on the back and wings, and barred on the tail with white. 

 The underparts are white, broadly streaked with brown. Irides and bill 

 yellow, claws black. The female is a slightly larger and paler bird than 

 the male. Young birds are somewhat more dingy and less grey in colour. 

 The Pygmy Owl, N. passerina, has been recorded as a British bird, but 

 on unsatisfactory evidence. It is a much smaller bird (wing only 4 inches 

 instead of 6 inches), with a more rounded wing (first primary not much 

 more than half the length of the second) . 



