264 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



" perl uggla," Sw.) was, next to the last, the 

 commonest owl in our forests, but being much, 

 more nocturnal in its habits than the hawk owl, 

 it 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. The 

 eggs of this owl vary much in shape, but not so 

 much in size. In the same nest you will see some 

 eggs as round as musket-balls, others oval and 

 elongated. The usual size, however, is about 

 If by 1 inch. This owl has a much more south- 

 ern range than the last, for we not unfrequently 

 take nests in South Wermland ; but, strange to say, 

 they are met with, like those of the crossbills, 

 only about every third year. This owl goes to 

 nest early ; after the end of May you rarely find 

 eggs. It has been remarked that whenever this 

 owl has appeared in autumn, in the very south of 

 Sweden, a severe winter has always followed. We 

 found it to occupy in the Quickiock forest precisely 

 the same range as the hawk owl, and we never by 

 any chance saw one on the fell sides higher than 

 the fir region. It is a bold, voracious little bird. 

 One light night I shot a female in full chase after 

 lemming on a frozen lake. In Wermland, on one 

 occasion, having caught an old female on the eggs, 



