TENGMALM'S OWL. 

 Nyctala tengmalmi (J. F. Gmelin). 

 Plate 27. 



Tengmalm's Owl, a rare visitant to Great Britain, has been recorded about 

 twenty times in England and four in Scotland. Although migratory in autumn 

 and winter, its home is in the forest regions of Northern Europe, and high up 

 on the wooded mountain-sides of the central and eastern portions of that continent, 

 while it also ranges into Siberia. 



Its four to six — occasionally ten — white eggs are laid, according to Wooley, 

 either in holes of trees or in the nesting-boxes placed by the Lapps for the use 

 of Golden-eye and other ducks, and it is said to occupy the deserted nest of the 

 Black Woodpecker. 



Its food consists of lemmings and other small mammals, as well as birds 

 and beetles. 



Wheelwright, in his notes on the ornithology of Lapland, describes its note as a 

 "very musical soft whistle." 



The ear orifices in most Owls are not symmetrical, but the late Professor 

 Collett has drawn attention to the fact that this want of equality extends to the 

 skull in this species. 



It may readily be distinguished from the Little Owl by its rather dense but 

 downy plumage, and the thick covering of feathers on legs and toes. 



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