SCOPS ZORCA 
Scops Eared Owl. 
Strix scops, Linn. Syst. Nat , xii. edit. tom. i. p. 132. 
zorca, Cetti, Ucc. di Sardegn., p. 60. 
carniolica, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 290. 
ffui, Scop. Ann. Hist. Nat., tom. i. no. 9. 
Asio scops, Briss. Orn., tom. i. p. 495, pi. xxxvii. fig. 1. 
Scops zorca, Swains. Class, of Birds, vol. ii. p. 217. 
Aldrovandi, Willugh. Orn., p. 65, tab. xii. 
ephialtes, Savig. Descr. de I’Egypte, Hist. Nat., tom. i. p. 107. 
europmis. Less. Traite d’Orn., p. 106. 
asio, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xiii. part 2. p. 51. 
Bnho scops, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 549. 
scops, Schleg. Rev. Crit. des Ois. d’Eur., p. xiv et 38. 
Ephialtes scops. Keys, und Bias. Wirbelth. Eur., p. 33. 
We find in the great family of Strigidce as much diversity of form and colouring as in any other group of 
birds of similar magnitude and equally general distribution ; and it is especially interesting to study their 
structural variations and marked differences. Although generally nocturnal, many are diurnal, the 
visionary powers of some of the genera enabling them to see as well by day as by night ; some, as we all 
know, have bright yellow or orange irides, while in others they are as black as sloes. Some genera, such 
as Bubo and Scops, are adorned with graceful tufts of feathers springing from above the eye, while the 
SurnlcB have full and rounded heads, without a trace of such appendages. The members of the genus Strix, 
of which our Barn-Owl may be cited as a typical examjde, are distinguished by the extreme delicacy, softness, 
and lovely pencillings of their plumage. Some genera have bare tarsi, as Ketupa ; while others have 
enormous feathered tarsi and toes — for example, Scotopelia. Now each of these diversities of structure is 
adapted to some special purpose ; thus the huge bird just alluded to and the great Australian Hieracoglaux 
strenuus prey upon large quadrupeds and birds, wbile the greater part of the food of the more delicate Scops 
consists mainly of insects. The forms above mentioned, however, are only a part of the great family of Owls, 
whose distribution over our globe is so general that no portion of its surface is entirely destitute of them. 
The area over which the present species ranges was formerly considered to be much more extensive than it 
really is : thus, instead of being spread over the whole of Africa, its range on that continent is somewhat 
circumscribed ; for it would seem that it does not cross the equator, and that the birds from Senegal and 
the Cape of Good Hope, which were formerly regarded as identical with it, are really distinct. The same 
remark applies to India ; for it is now excluded from the fauna of that country, and the name Scops pennatus 
no longer placed as a synonym of Scops zorca. In North Africa, Egypt, Persia, the Holy Land, Asia Minor, 
and the whole of Southern Europe, including the islands in the Mediterranean, it is tolerably common ; it is 
equally numerous in France and some parts of Germany; while in Belgium and Holland it is rare, and 
becomes still more so in Sweden and Norway, which constitute the boundary of its range in a northern 
direction. In England, Scotland, and Ireland its occurrence is purely accidental ; and if any instances of 
its having bred therein have been recorded, they are few in number, and have not been satisfactorily verified. 
If we consult some of the works relative to European ornithology published on the Continent, we shall find 
many details respecting the habits and economy of this bird with which, for want of opportunity, our native 
writers have not been able to make themselves acquainted, and have therefore had to be content with giving 
little more than a list of its various occurrences in our island, which are too numerous to be recapitulated 
here; I must not, however, omit to mention two or three that have been kindly forwarded to me for the 
purposes of the present work. Mr. E. H. Rodd’s specimen from the Scilly Islands was especially beautiful, 
its pencilled markings rivalling in minuteness those of the most delicately marked Nightjar or of the 
Wryneck ; and another, equally beautiful, was presented to me by the late amiable Earl of Craven, which had 
been caught alive under a turnip-leaf in a field on his Lordship’s estate at Ashdown, in Berkshire, I believe, 
the year 1858. Lastly, at the moment I am writing, June 1868, Mr, Rocke, of Clungunford House, 
Shropshire, sends me word that a fine male specimen has been recently killed by John Hurleston Leche, 
Esq., of Carden Park, Cheshire. It had been heard, several evenings before it was obtained, uttering its 
peculiar note kew, kew.” 
“ In the Djendeli district we found this Owl abundant; every night its peculiar cry might be heard from 
one or more individuals. Several, which had been caught on their nests, were brought to us by the Arabs ; 
