BIRDS 177 



LITTLE OWL. 



Athene noctua (Scop.). 



On a former occasion, Mr. H. P. Senhouse favoured me with 

 the information that a Little Owl was once killed near Westward, 

 and shown to his father in the flesh, but he was unable to 

 furnish the date of its occurrence. Happily, he has since 

 remedied this defect by forwarding a letter, written by Mr. T. 

 C. Heysham to his father, which fixes the date. 



In this letter of February 16, 1856, Mr. Heysham wrote as 

 follows : ' I feel much obliged, and beg to thank you for your 

 kind attention in sending me a notice of the capture of a speci- 

 men of Strix passerina at Westward. This bird is certainly a 

 novelty in the North of England, and I believe the first instance 

 of its occurrence in this county. I need scarcely tell you 

 that S. passerina and S. Tengmalmi are so nearly allied, that 

 frequent mistakes have been made as to their identity. You, 

 however, are too good an ornithologist to commit an error of 

 this description. Had it fallen into any other hands, I should 

 most certainly have preferred an inspection, merely to satisfy 

 myself as to the species. I fear the body has been thrown away, 

 otherwise the sternum, etc., of this little nocturnal marauder 

 would have been acceptable to me by way of a relic/ The last 

 remark shows conclusively that this Owl was killed in 1856, 

 probably at the beginning of February, a month in which, 

 according to Mr. Harting, the species has repeatedly occurred 

 in Great Britain. The specimen became the property of the 

 late General Wyndham. 



Order A CCIPITRES. Fam. FA LCONIDjE, 



MARSH HARRIER. 



Circus ceruginosus (L.). 



Though long extinct as a breeding bird, the Marsh Harrier 

 must once have nested quite commonly on the great wastes of 

 Lakeland. Dr. Heysham seems to have possessed a personal 

 acquaintance with this Harrier, from the descriptions which he 



