72 BritisH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
Family—S TRIGIDA. 
TENGMALM’S OWL. 
Nyctala tengmalmi, GMEL. 
HIS small and prettily mottled wood Owl is only a rare visitor to the 
British Isles from the northern countries of Europe. Harting enumerates 
twenty instances ‘of its occurrence, but it seems to have been occasionally con- 
founded with the Little Owl, which southern species may have also been taken for 
it, so that it is uncertain how many of the recorded appearances of Tengmalm’s 
Owl really refer to that bird. An undoubted Tengmalm’s Owl that was obtained 
in Somerset was at first considered to be a Little Owl. Those that have been 
met with in this country were captured chiefly during the spring, the majority of 
them on the eastern coast, and in Scotland; Tengmalm’s Owl has not been yet 
obtained in Ireland. It inhabits the mountain forests of northern Europe, and 
the mountains of the south, such as the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Carpathians; 
the northern parts of Asia, and North America, as far north as Alaska and 
Labrador, where it is of a darker plumage, coming as near to the British Isles 
as Sweden and Norway. It is strictly nocturnal, only issuing forth at dusk to 
hunt for its prey which consists of the usual Owl dietary, small birds, lemmings, 
mice, and beetles. Wheelwright states that, next to the Hawk Owl, “it is the 
commonest Owl in the forests of Lapland, but being much more nocturnal in its 
habits was not so often seen; not that the light appears much to affect its vision, 
for here the summer nights are as light as day, and we rarely went into the 
forest on any night without seeing this pretty little Owl hawking after its prey. 
It is a bold, voracious little bird. The call note was a very musical soft whistle, 
which, however, I never heard except in the evening and night.” Tengmalm’s 
Owl nests in April or the beginning of May in holes of trees, sometimes 
occupying the deserted nest of the great Black Woodpecker: sometimes one of 
the boxes set up by the peasants for the Golden-eyed Duck to lay in; the eggs 
vary much in shape, “in the same nest you will see some eggs as round as 
musket balls, others oval and elongated;’’ the usual size is about one and three- 
eighths of an inch by one inch: they are pure white, and fine in grain, and 
are generally four in number, rarely six or seven, although as many as ten have 
been found. 
