THE SCOPS OWL. 



195 



old nesting-place is taken possession of, and probably used as a roosting- 

 place during the day ; but the eggs are seldom laid before the middle of 

 May. The female sits very close, and can generally Ijc caught on the 

 nest. Irby says that it breeds very abundantly in the cork-woods round 

 Gibraltar, and that the nest is very easily discovered by beating the tree 

 with a stick. 



The Scops Owl breeds almost universally in hollow trees ; but Tristram 

 found its nest in holes in walls, and Kriiper describes it as especially 

 common on the island of Naxos, laying its eggs in the scaffold-holes which 

 the indolent Greeks omitted to fill up in the houses. Like all the Owls, 

 the present species makes little or no nest, merely a little hollow scratched 

 out, and lined with the indigestible portions of the bird's food. The eggs 

 are from five to six in number, pure white in colour, and varying in length 

 from rS to 1-15 inch, and in breadth from 1-1 to I'O inch. The only 

 eggs of a British Owl with which those of the Scops Owl can be confounded 

 are those of the Little Owl. Small examples of the latter measure the 

 same as large examples of the former, but are generally rougher in texture 

 and not so round in shape. 



The Scops Owl is the smallest British Owl. The general colour is grey, 

 each feather with a dark centre, vermiculated with brown of various shades. 

 It has two not very conspicuous ear-tufts, and may be distinguished from 

 every other British Owl by its bare feet, the tarsus only being feathered. 

 Toes brown ; claws black at tip, whitish at base ; beak black ; irides yellow. 

 The female is similar to the male ; but young birds are more rufous than 

 adults. 



The American Screech-Owl, S. asio, an aUied species to the present, 

 is said to have occurred twice in England. One is recorded in the 

 ' Naturalist/ 1855, p. 69, as having been shot near Kirkstall Abbey 

 in Yorkshire in 1853; the second is mentioned by Mr. Stevenson, and is 

 supposed to have been killed near Yarmouth in Norfolk. The evidence 

 in both cases is extremely unsatisfactory. 



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