86 
STRIGIM. 
proved similar to a Strix Scops in his collection. Mr. Joseph 
Poole, of Killiane, Wexford, wrote to me on the 19th of April, 
1847, that a scops-eared owl, which had come under his notice, 
was killed a few days before that date, near Kilmore, in the south 
of the county. 
In the month of August, 1826, I met with a bird of this 
species, perched in what had been a window, among the ruins of 
Otricoli, near Rome. It admitted of a close approach, and looked 
most contentedly at home. When proceeding from Malta to 
the Morea, in H.M.S. Beacon, on the 25th of April, 1841, and 
135 miles eastward of Etna, and less than half that distance from 
Calabria (the nearest land), a scops-eared owl, on its northward 
flight, came on board. It was struck down and captured, just as 
it had clutched a lesser whitethroat ( Sylvia curruca ). 
The little Owl {Strix passerina, Temm.), which has occasionally 
been obtained in England, cannot yet be included with certainty in the 
Irish catalogue ; — nor can it in that of Scotland. On the 22nd of 
April, 1841, one of these owls flew on board H.M.S. Beacon, when 
forty miles east of Malta, and remained for a short time. Others were 
seen during the next few days, as we sailed towards the Morea. Early 
in June one was shot at Paros ; and I saw another near Naussa. 
THE LONG-EARED OWL. 
Otus vulgaris , Elem. 
Strix otus , Linn. 
Commonly inhabits old wooded districts in all parts of 
the island. 
In addition to such places, I have known this species to be shot 
during the dusk of the evening, at low water in Belfast bay, a mile 
distant from the land, by a person waiting (in a barrel sunk in the 
ooze) for the flying of wigeon. The white owl has, in several 
instances, been similarly obtained. 
An individual to whom the long-eared owl is well known, in- 
forms me, that in a close plantation of spruce firs ( Abies com- 
munis^) at Scoutbush, near Carrickfergus, he for several years had 
