THE DOWNY OWLETS. 
I°5 
autumn. T.ess than twenty authentic records of the occurrence 
of the species within our limits have been published, and prob- 
ably not more than sixteen or seventeen are genuine. Ine 
counties in which Tengmalm’s Owl has been captured are 
Northumberland, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent, and 
Somerset, Shropshire, Lancashire, and Cumberland most ot 
these instances having occurred during autumn. 1 wo Scot- 
tish records are known, one in the Orkneys, and one in the 
Firth of Forth, but no specimen has yet been procured in 
Ireland. 
Range outside the British Islands.— Tengmalm’s Owl jn m- 
habitant of the mountain regions of the Old and New Woilds, 
for I have never been able to discover the specific distinctness 
of the American form, the so-called Nyctala richardsoni. It 
is an inhabitant of the pine-forest region south of the Arctic 
Circle from Scandinavia to Eastern Siberia, and again m 
North America. In Lapland it breeds as for north as 6S 
N. lat, in the Ural Mountains up to 59 N. hit. 
River Ob Dr. Finsch obtained it m lat. 61 , and Mr. bee- 
bohm’s collectors have sent specimens Jrom Krasnoyarsk in 
Siberia. The species is plentiful in Eastern Siberia 10“"^ 
Lake Baikal, and also as far as Sidemi m Ussun Land, but 
has not yet been detected in Kamtchatka 
In winter Tengmalm’s Owl migrates to a certain extent, but 
is not found very far to the south. It breeds ^ 
pathians and the Alps in the forests, as well as in the Vosges 
and the mountains of South-eastern France. 
Habits. — Although principally a nocturnal species, ieng- 
malm’s Owl does not appear to be incommoded by the day- 
light ; and, indeed, in the northern localities where the species 
breeds, the sun never sets, and there is scarcely any difference 
between night and day. Its food consists of small rodents, 
such as mice and lemmings, as well as insects and_ small 
birds, and Taezanowski states that in Eastern biberia this 
little Owl is detested by the trappers, as it is continually being 
taken in the snares set for the Ermine, and the bird is there- 
fore considered a nuisance. 
Wheelwright says that the note of Tengmalm s Owl is a 
soft whistle, which is heard only in the evening and at night. 
