176 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



the year 1876 — indeed, the fact was recorded in the Zoologist 

 by Mr. W. A. Durnford, as well as by Dr. Parker. 1 But a 

 slight doubt as to the exact date upon which the bird was killed 

 has hitherto existed ; Mr. Durnford having referred its capture 

 to the month of October, while the Gosforth naturalist assigned 

 the same event to December. Believing that the specimen had 

 always remained in the possession of its original owner, the 

 Rev. C. Fullerton Smith, I communicated with that gentleman, 

 and then learnt that the 3d of November 1876 was really the 

 correct day of its occurrence. It was killed by a man named 

 James Wright, keeper to the late A. B. Steward, Esq. of Newton 

 Manor, Gosforth, and was shown to Mr. Fullerton Smith on the 

 following day at Mill Cottage, then occupied by George Savage, 

 keeper to Mr. Burns Lindow of Irton Hall. It was Savage who 

 handed the bird to Mr. Fullerton Smith, in the flesh. Savage 

 mounted the bird, and subsequently told Mr. Fullerton Smith 

 that it was a female. 



SCOPS OWL. 



Scops giu (Scop.). 



When visiting Mr. Joseph Whitaker of Rainworth, in June 

 1887, I examined an example of this small Owl, shot near 

 Renwick on the 15th of May 1875, and acquired by purchase 

 as soon as its occurrence was notified in the Field of May 2 2d. 

 In June 1889 Mrs. Dryden of Renwick pointed out to me an 

 ash-tree, standing in the middle of the village, out of which this 

 poor wanderer was shot. It was Mrs. Dryden who first observed 

 the bird towards evening, when it was perching in this ash-tree. 

 She at once told her sons what she had seen. One of them — 

 not Henry Dryden, but another brother who has since died — ran 

 out with a gun. He disturbed the 'bird, which flew out of the 

 tree, but returned to it after a short flight, and was promptly 

 shot. Henry Dryden, who was also present, independently con- 

 firmed the correctness of his mother's statement. 



1 Zoologist, 1877, p. 277; ibid. 1879, p. 117. 



