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, Flem.

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, informs me, that in a close plantation of spruce firs (Abies communis,) at Scoutbush, near Carrickfergus, he for several years had

its nests; which, in consequence of the trees being young, were placed not higher than six feet from the ground. Two nests in Hillsborough Park, in the summer of 1848, were placed about twenty feet from the ground in dense silver firs of double that height. One of them, which was robbed about the 10th of June, contained three young (perhaps twelve days out) and an addled egg. The other nest at the same date contained four eggs. The first garb of the owlets is white down, but like that of the kestrel, when viewed en masse, of a light sandy-coloured tinge; their irides are yellow, of a lighter tint than in old birds. Their larder consisted at the early hour of five o'clock in the morning, when they were carried off, of three old sparrows, two of which were males. About Youghal, it builds "in ruined magpie's nests."* Mr. Poole mentions, that to a deserted magpie's nest which came under his notice, when appropriated by a pair of these owls, no addition was made, excepting a few soft feathers from the owl itself. The nest contained eggs on the 14th of March, and beside them lay a dead field-mouse. Another nest, examined by him, contained four owlets, two of which were so much larger then the others, as scarcely to appear to belong to the same brood. There were no castings under the tree in which this brood was brought up. The long-eared owl is common in Tipperary † and Kerry; ‡ and is noticed as inhabiting chiefly fir plantations, in the former county. With respect to food, the stomachs of three which I have noted, contained :One, a sparrow almost whole; the second, portions of a large coleopterous insect; the third, the remains of three buntings. The stomach of a long-eared owl, shot at Killaloe, contained “part of a rat, the skull of a mouse, and the heads of two sparrows."

:

Dr. J. D. Marshall, of Belfast, informs me, that for five or six years, when he lived in High-street, opposite St. George's Church, he kept long and short-eared owls (S. otus and S. brachyotus) instead of cats, and found them to be much more effective killers of rats and mice. Their patience was extraordinary. At the entrance to one rat-hole, which happened frequently to come under Mr. Neligan.

* Mr. R. Ball.

Mr. R. Davis.

his view, one of these birds was always stationed, until it succeeded in killing the whole of the inmates, consisting of a pair of old, and nine well-grown young ones. They were invariably seized with its foot by the back of the neck, so that the bird never suffered the slightest injury. Living rats, too, (as in the case of the kites already mentioned,) let out of the cage-trap, and a fair start given to them, were always captured by these owls, which kept up a violent screaming during the chase; as they also did, when by their unaided efforts they had seized a rat, and, flapping their wings, hurried away to some retired spot to eat their prey. These owls had free access to the dwelling-house, and cleared it completely of mice; as they did the yard and store, of rats. They were great pets, and very fond of having their ears rubbed. When the finger was applied to these organs, they were fully expanded, and the application was so pleasing to the bird that it gently fell asleep. Mr. R. Ball had once a young long-eared owl, which was permitted to fly wherever it pleased, and by choice it generally remained during the day in a grove of tall fir-trees. His call to it from a considerable distance was always answered by a loud melancholy cry, and when he reached the base of the tree on which the owl was, it came down and perched upon his hand.

Can only be announced with certainty as a regular winter visitant.

SIR William Jardine has met with this species in its breeding haunts in Dumfries-shire, and given a most interesting account of it, as observed there.* Mr. Selby, too, considers from the circumstance of his meeting with the short-eared owl on the Northumbrian moors about the 12th of August, that it breeds on them; † and Mr. Hoy ascertained that it bred in the south-west * His edition of Wilson's Amer. Orn. vol. ii. p. 63; and Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 286. "A few of them remain upon the moors of Northumberland, where Mr. Charlton

of Norfolk. But as to its breeding in Ireland,-which from the nature of the country, we should certainly expect,--no information can be given. Sportsmen and gamekeepers, whom I have questioned on the subject, know the bird only as a winter visitant. One friend, who for about forty years shot over the mountains of several of our northern counties, and in no instance was a day after the legal one (20th of August in Ireland) in commencing grouse-shooting,--always, too, having exercised his dogs preparatory to the sport, for some time previously,―never met with it at that season; nor at any other than when woodcocks are to be found. The short-eared owl is then well known to him as frequenting the mountain heaths. He has never observed it on wing, except when sprung, nor seen it pursue prey by day. It has, however, been observed to do so in Scotland.*

To the neighbourhood of Belfast,--Down and Antrim,—this owl generally comes in the month of October; but so early as the 5th of September, 1839, one was shot in a potato field bordering the bay, within a mile of the town. It remains from this time until spring. The latest noted here was killed on the 3rd of April, 1837; for a long time before that period, there was a prevalence of north-easterly winds, which, had the bird been disposed for migration, might have retarded its movements. The species is generally found in marshy ground frequented by snipes. When snipe-shooting around Belfast, a few of these owls have fallen to my gun, in boggy spots of very limited extent. The first of them that did so, being only winged, afforded me an opportunity of observing the exceeding "depth" and brilliancy of its large golden eyes, to utterly extinguish the light of which,--such is the effect of beauty,-it must be confessed, pained me much. To the counties of Londonderry and Donegal this owl resorts, in the latter of which it was not observed by Mr. J. V. Stewart until after the publication of his catalogue. Southward, it is met with

of Hesleyside, has frequently found their eggs among the heath in his own neighbourhood. Mr. R. R. Wingate has also met with the young ones on the same moors before they were able to fly."-HEWITSON, Eggs Brit. Birds, p. 36.

* See St. John's Sketches of the Wild Sports of the Highlands, p. 64.

very rarely about Clonmel.* Major Walker of Belmont, near Wexford, mentions their presence in winter in numbers on the mountain of Forth, whence they leave the country about April. This gentleman remarks :-"I consider the short-eared owl and the yellow owl [S. flammea?] the most sharp-sighted and vigilant birds I meet, and nearly impossible to get a shot at after being once disturbed, perching as they do on some elevation, or in the centre of a field, so as to command a good view around. I mention this, as it is so different from the habits of the very large owls I have met with in the forests of North America, which would let our troops ride within a few yards of their perch, and unless struck at, never flew away." Another correspondent, writing from the same county, mentions his coming suddenly on three of these birds, resting together on the ground in the middle of a large bog, waiting as he supposed, "for an opportunity of devouring snipe." Specimens are occasionally obtained in the county of Waterford.†

In the Fauna of Cork, the species is noted as not rare; and from what Dr. Harvey of Cork writes to me respecting its occurrence in that neighbourhood, it would seem to be about equally common as around Belfast. Mr. Neligan has remarked, that it arrives in Kerry with the woodcock, and departs thence at the same period; also, that the haunts of the two species in the mountains are similar. In the month of September or October,—about the time of arrival, a friend of his once saw thirteen or fourteen in company; and from sportsmen shooting near Tralee, he was occasionally supplied with two or three of these birds in the course of a week. Mr. M'Calla, writing from Roundstone, Connemara, in October, 1840, stated that he had seen but one owl of any kind in that district, and from the distance at which it was, the species could not be ascertained. To the short-eared owl only would that locality seem to be suited, and to it, particularly well.

In the stomach of one specimen examined by me, were the legs of a dunlin (Tringa variabilis), and in another, the remains of mice.‡

The following quaint extract from Rutty's Natural History of the county of