136 THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
125. Athene noctua. Little Owl. 
A rare occasional visitor, whose numbers have been 
largely increased by introduction. 
As in the case of the eagle owl, it is the oldest records 
which most probably stand for truly wild birds, such as the 
specimen in the Hart collection, dated New Forest, Sep- 
tember, 1856. 
Wise, writing in N ovember, 1 862, says that when Farren 
first mentioned this bird as breeding in the forest he was 
somewhat incredulous. Subsequent enquiries, however, left 
no doubt in his mind that the bird was sometimes seen, 
though mistaken for a hawk. Mr. Farren (he says) found 
two eggs in a hole of an oak, which seem to have been 
those of this bird, and in 1862, he himself received infor- 
mation of a hawk laying white eggs, in a hollow tree, 
which were unfortunately broken. 
Professor Newton, writing in 1 871 in the first volume 
of the fourth edition of Yarrell, says that there is reason to 
believe that others, besides Waterton, have tried the 
experiment of introducing them into this country, and 
without making public the fact, and it has been generally 
assumed, since that date, that our Hampshire specimens 
are the result of importation. 
In the year 1888, it was announced, in Howard 
Saunders' Manual and in Mansel-Pleydell's "Birds of 
Dorset," that Mr. Meade-Waldo had liberated specimens 
in the forest. 
In the meanwhile several other Hampshire specimens 
were placed on record. 
