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MORRIS, B.A, MEMBER OF THE ASHMOLEAN SOCIETY WPL, iF. CONTAINING FORTY-THREE COLOURED ENGRAVINGS, ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo.’ LONDON: GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS, 5, PATERNOSTER ROW, _ZQSONIAN IN qusON SHG I> (M321 890 G JUL 11 1946 “ATONAL wust™ rad , Ly } or Pot * CONTENTS OF THE PERSE VODUM E PAGE Griffon Vulture . ; , : L , : F : 1 Egyptian Vulture . ! : : : : : , : 3 Hrne . 5 : : : ; : : , : : 6 x Golden Eagle . ; : : : ; é 3 ; ah WAG ~ Spotted Hagle . ; : : : : : : 21 Osprey : : ; : ; ; é ‘ ‘ : Lee , Buzzard : . ; : : : a ; ; 30 $ Rough-legged Tee : 3 ; ‘ f : ’ aie “\ Honey Buzzard . : : ; : ‘ 2 : 4A Kite é : , : : ; : ‘ p ecg 52 ~Swallow-tailed Kite : : ; é , ; ; : 59 > vJer-Falcon : ; , ; } s . ; 4 , I am indebted for the original drawin of the bird before us; and many others from the same skilful hand will adorn the pages of the present work, in attitudes entirely new and striking. The Hobby is a spirited and daring Hawk, and very detr- mined in pursuit of its game, so that it was formerly much esteemed in falconry, and used accordingly for flying at the smaller birds. It may easily be trained to do so, and becomes very tame when kept in confinement. It has been known to dash through a window into a room, at a bird in a cage; and will occasionally follow sportsmen, and pounce upon the small birds put up by the dogs. ‘Though a well-known bird, Mr. Yarrell correctly says, ‘it is not very numerous as a species.’ It is, moreover, from its wild nature, difficult to be approached, and when met with within shot, it is generally when off its guard, in pursuit of its prey. The Hobby is found thoughout Europe, occurring in Astra- chan, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and many other parts of this continent, and is also known in Asia, in Siberia and India— in the latter widely distributed, and in Africa near the Cape of Good Hope, and no doubt in other districts also. In many parts of England it has not unfrequently occurred. In Yorkshire, principally in the West-Riding, and occasionally near York. It is described by John Hogg, Esq., in a paper communicated by him to the British Association, at its session at York, in the year 1844, and since published in the ‘Zool- ogist,’ as being a rare species and migratory in Cleveland. In the East-Riding, one was killed near Knapton by a boy, with a stick: it was at the time in the act of devouring a rook. In Devonshire, it has been accustomed to breed in TOBBY. rigs Warleigh woods; in Essex, it has been met near Epping; in Norfolk, it occurs as a summer visitor, but the specimens obtained are, according to John H. Gurney, Esq. and William R. Fisher, Esq., in their Catalogue of the Birds of Norfolk, published in the ‘Zoologist,’ far from numerous, and generally in immature plumage. The same gentlemen record that it occasionally breeds in that county, and that an instance of its doing so occurred at Brixley, near Norwich, in the spring of 1844; and they mention that an immature specimen of the Hobby was shot some years since while sitting on a church tower, in the centre of the city of Norwich. The occurrence of this species at Yarmouth, so early as the month of February, is noticed at page 248 of the ‘Zoologist.’ It has once been met with in Durham. In the Isle of Wight it is, says the Rev. C. Bury, in his Catalogue of the Birds of that island, occa- sionally seen, but he adds that he has not been able to ascertat that it has been known to breed there. An adult male was shot in the land-slip, in October, 1841; and a pair were killed some years previous, also in the autumn, in the heart of the island. In Kent it is recorded by J. Pemberton Bartlett, Esq., to be not uncommon. In Sussex, it has occurred near Battle, Pevensey, Lewes, and MHalnaker, in September, 1836, and in other parts of that county. It is sufficiently common, according to the Rev. R. P. Alington, in the neighbourhood of Swinhope, Lincolnshire; as it also has been in Derbyshire, Oxfordshire, Lancashire, Dorsetshire, where it has been known to breed; as likewise at Cottenham, in Cam- bridgeshire. Cumberland as yet would seem to be its north- ernmost range. It does not appear to be known in Scotland. ‘Unlike the Peregrine, says A. E. Knox, Esq., ‘it prefers the wooded district of the weald to the downs or the open country near the coast, being there a summer visitor. Yet, even in these his favourite haunts, he must be considered | scarce, and you will rarely discover his decaying form among the rows of defunct Hawks which garnish the gable end of the keeper’s cottage—a sort of ornithological register, which would appear to indicate, with tolerable accuracy, the prevalence or scarcity of any species of raptorial bird in its immediate neighbourhood.’ “The courage and address of this Ilawk are remarkable. When shooting with a friend a few years ago, during the early part of September, we observed a Hobby pursuing a partridge, which, having been wounded, was then in the act 78 HOBBY. of ‘towering.’ The little fellow proved himself to be a true Falcon, by the quickness with which he rose above his quarry in rapid circles, ‘climbing to the mountee,’ as our ancestors termed this manceuvre, with all the ease of a Peregrine. Unfortunately, at this juncture the partridge became suddenly lifeless, as is the case with all towering birds, and fell to the ground; while the Hobby, apparently disdaining to accept a victim which he had not obtained by his own exertions, scudded away after a fresh covey.’ _In Ireland, it is the opinion, much to be depended on, of William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, that the few individuals of the Hobby reeorded in former years as having occurred, have been males of the Peregrine. He gives only one speci- _ men as having indubitably been met, which was shot on his garden wall by — Parker, Esq., of Carrigrohan, about three or four miles from Cork, up the beautiful River Lee. It by no means affects only the wilder districts, but is to be seen in such as are best cultivated, preferring, of course, those in which wood is plentiful. It is said that the Hobby is in this country a summer visitor, appearing in April, and departing towards the end of October, or beginning of November. It has however been seen in the month of December, in the pursuit of its game, so that it would appear, at all events, not to be universally a migratory bird, at least from this country; it may besides make partial migrations from one locality to another, as pleasure or necessity happens to direct. It has been kept throughout the winter without any difficulty, by the Revs. A. and H. Matthews. It flies, like others of its tribe, till late in the evening, in pursuit of insects or other food. The flight of this species is extremely rapid and easy, per- formed with little motion of the wings, and it continues for a long time together on the wing. It will sometimes ‘tower’ upwards in the most spirited manner in pursuit of its prey. Its food consists of small birds, such as snipes, plovers, swallows, sandpipers, quails, and thrushes, and it would appear to be particularly partial to larks and buntings. It will even fly at the partridge, though a bird of so much greater bulk than itself. It also feeds on the larger coleopterous insects, such as cockchaffers, and on grasshoppers; the former it sometimes hawks after over ponds and streams until late in the evening. The male and female are said, according to Meyer, to hunt together, but sometimes to quarrel for what HOBBY. 79 they have caught, and so to suffer their prey to escape from them. The note is said to resemble that of the Wryneck. The Hobby builds in the trees of woods and forests, generally among the topmost branches, but sometimes in a hole of a tree. In the former case, a preference is given to isolated fir or other plantations, as affording at the same time a less likelihood of disturbance, a better view of approach from. all sides, and a supply of the several kinds of food on which the bird lives. It has also been known to build on the ledges of steep precipices or mountains. The same pair will return to their breeding place from year to year if not disturbed. The nest is built of sticks, and is lined with moss, hair, and other such materials. Occasionally the forsaken tenement. of some other species of bird is made to serve the purpose of one of its own fabrication. It frequently avails itself of that of the carrion crow, or a magpie. The eggs, which are laid about the first week in June, are two, three, or four in number; some say that the former, and others that the latter is the more frequent amounts: they are of a rather short and oval shape, and of a dingy white, or bluish white ground colour, much speckled all over with reddish or yellowish brown, or sometimes with olive green. Mr. Hewitson says that they are very much lke some of those of the Kestrel, as well as those of the Merlin, but that they are larger than either; of a pinker hue, less suffused with colour, and marked with fewer of the small black dots which are scattered over the surface of the others. The young remain for some time in the neighbourhood of the nest, until they have gradually learned to cater for themselves. In general appearance, the Hobby resembles in some degree the Peregrine, at least on the back, for the breast is streaked instead of barred. It is also of a more slender shape—the wings are longer than the tail. Male; upper parts of a general dark slate-colour, the shafts of the feathers being darker; the lower parts yellowish or rufous white, streaked with dark brown; weight about seven ounces or half a pound; length, about’ one foot or thirteen inches; bill, black or bluish black, darkest at the tip, blue at the base; cere, yellow; iris, reddish brown or orange. The head large, broad, and flat, of a dark slate-colour; crown, greyish black; neck, white on the sides, and brownish white or ferruginous on the middle part behind, a black streak or band running downwards from the angle of the bill; nape, §0 HOBBY. greyish black; chin and throat, white; breast, yellowish white, streaked with brown; back, dark slate-colour. The wings, which expand to about two feet two inches, have the quills dusky black, with yellowish brown or ferruginous oval spots on the inner webs—the second quill is the longest in the wing; greater and lesser wing coverts, dark slate-colour. The tail, which consists of twelve feathers, and is as much as six inches long, and slightly rounded at the end, is dark brownish grey, the two middle feathers plain, the others transversely marked with reddish white or yellowish brown; under tail coverts, bright orange red or ferruginous, with dusky streaks. The legs short, and feathered about a third down, the feathers on them deep rufous, and streaked lke the under tail coverts, but in extreme age these markings are said to wear off, and the ground colour alone to remain. The toes reticulated, and united at the base with short webs. Female; weight, about nine ounces or upwards; length, thirteen or fourteen inches; bill, the same as in the male. The feathers of the head are margined with brown, which probably wears off with age; neck, white on the sides, brownish white or light ferrugimous on the middle part behind; the band blackish brown; throat, white; back, greyish brown, the shafts being of a darker hue; breast, reddish white, streaked with dark brown. The wings expand to about two feet four inches; the quills are brownish black, spotted on the inner webs with reddish white. The tail greyish brown, faintly barred with a darker shade; under tail coverts, light yellowish red. The young bird has the cere greenish yellow, of a very light shade, at first almost white; iris, dark brown or dusky; front of the head, yellowish grey, with a line of the same over the eyes; crown of the head and nape, greyish black; the feathers edged with yellowish white. The neck white on the sides, and surrounded by a ring of yellowish white, which is indistinct behind, the band black; chin, white; throat, yellowish white; breast, yellowish white, streaked with brownish black; back, greyish black, edged with dull white; quills of the wings as in the old birds; greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish black; primaries and secondaries, nearly black, edged with dull white. The tail as in the female, but the bands are light red; the tip and the quills, reddish white; beneath, it is barred with dull white and greyish black; lower tail coverts, vellowish white with brown shafts. The legs yellow; feathers of the legs, yellowish white, with oblong brown spots; claws, black. 446 oh poe 2 Wh ; Mi Z fore L 81 ORANGE-LEGGED HOBBY. Falco rufipes, BECHSTEIN. Falco vespertinus, GMELIN, LinNa&us. LATHAM, Falco—To cut with a bill or hook. Rufipes. Rufus—Red. Pes—A foot. THERE is not much at present to be said about the species before us, and it is so far well, in that it allows the greater space to treat of other more common, and therefore better known, British Birds. In a work of this kind, it is, for the most part, room and not matter that is wanting; ‘brevis esse laboro,’ and it is a matter of regret that I am obliged to do so, but a necessarily short article in the one case leaves the more scope for a longer one in another. The Orange-legged Hobby, delighting in a mountainous and at the same time wooded region, is common in some parts of Europe, but rare in others. It is plentiful in Russia, Silesia, Hungary, Poland, and Austria; less so in Italy, Swit- zerland, and the Tyrol; uncommon in France, and unknown in Holland. But very few examples of British specimens of this species have as yet been obtained. In Yorkshire, a male has been recorded by J. 8S. Foljambe, Esq., to have been obtained some years since; another is said to have been shot at Rossington, near Doncaster; a third was killed a few years ago near Easingwold, and was sent to Mr. H. Chapman, of York, to be preserved, with a message that if it was a cuckoo, he was to stuff it for the person who shot it; but that if it was not a cuckoo, he might, if he stuffed it, keep it for his pains. A fourth was shot on the 6th. of May, 18—, at Stainor Wood, near Selby. Three were obtained together in the month of May, in the year 1830, at Horning, in the county of Norfolk, an adult male, a young male in immature plumage, and an adult female. A fourth specimen, a female, was also shot in Holkham Park, the seat of Mr. Coke, (Lord Leicester ;) VOL, I. G §2 ORANGE-LEGGED HOBBY. a fifth in the same county, in the year 1832; and a sixth, a male in adult plumage, in August, 1843, near Norwich— its stomach contained only beetles. ‘Two have been procured, both males, near Plymouth, as I am informed by Mr. R. A. Julian, of that place. The first he says flew on board a vessel in the Channel near the Breakwater, and was captured; the other was brought to Mr. Pincombe, bird preserver of that town, by a person who shot it at Wembury cliff, and who said that he saw another of the same kind in company with it. One has been obtained in the county of Durham. In Scotland it has hitherto been unknown. In Ireland one, (and possibly another, but it is uncertain,) was procured in the county of Wicklow, in the summer of 1832. It was shot just as it had pounced on a pigeon, of at least its own size, in a gentleman’s yard—both fell dead at the same discharge. Mr. Meyer says—‘I have more than once seen this bird, but have not been so fortunate as to obtain it. On one occasion, in the summer of 1838, I was late one evening walking in the unenclosed plantations belonging to Claremont, on a heath on which I knew they were sometimes found, when my advance roused from the ground a bird, whose peculiar flight instantly arrested my attention, and I followed it as far as the enclosure of the plantation into which it had entered would permit; I presently perceived it sitting upon the branch of a tree, in company with another bird of similar size, but differing in colour. I was near enough to observe their plumage, and no doubt remained upon my mind respecting them—they were Orange-legged Hobbies.’ The food of this species consists of the smaller birds, such as quails, and even occasionally those that are much larger, as the pigeon just mentioned, and the larger coleopterous and other insects. In pursuit of the latter it is seen skimming over watery places until late in the evening—a habit also of others of the Hawks—uttering its note from time to time. One of its specific names, ‘vespertinus,’ (of, or belonging to the evening,) is doubtless hence derived. Its nest is said to be built in the hollows of trees, and it is also stated that use is sometimes made of that of a magpie or other bird. Male; after the first moult the whole plumage of the back is more uniforn than in the female. The general colour is deep leaden blue except the legs and under tail coverts, which are bright yellowish red. Length, about eleven inches; bill, ORANGE-LEGGED HOBBY. : 83 yellowish white at the base, the rest horn colour, inclining to yellowish brown towards the tip; cere, reddish orange; iris, dark brown; head, crown, neck, nape, chin, throat, breast, and back, dull lead colour. The wings, which reach all but to the end of the tail, are of a dull lead colour, the quills lighter with brownish black shafts; the second feather is the longest in the wing, being about half an inch longer than the first and third, which are of an equal length. Greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, of the same dull leaden hue; tail, dull lead colour; tail coverts the same; under tail coverts, deep ferruginous; legs, which are feathered in front more than one third down with deep orange ferruginous, and the toes, light reddish. The claws, yellowish white with dusky tips. It seems possible that the white colour may be the result of age. The female, on the upper parts of the body is of a general greyish blue barred with black; the head and back of the neck, yellowish red; the lower parts light yellowish red with longitudinal brown spots. When old, the plumage is said to become lighter in colour, and the black bars narrower. Length, about twelve inches; bill and iris, yellow; forehead, whitish; crown, pale rufous; neck, on the back part, and nape, dark reddish brown or yellowish red, as is also the moustache, sometimes approaching to black. The neck behind is barred with greyish black. ‘The chin and throat nearly white, having a slight reddish or yellowish tint; breast, pale rufous brown, tinged with cinereous, with dark reddish brown longitudinal streaks; the shafts of the feathers and a spot near the tip, dark brown. ‘These marks are said to disappear with age. The back, greater and lesser wing coverts, blackish grey or bluish grey, transversely barred on each feather with bluish or greyish black; the quills blackish grey on the outer webs and tips, and transversely barred with white on the inner; under wing coverts, rufous with transverse bars of dark brown; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, dusky black. The tail on the upper surface, as also the tail coverts, blackish grey or bluish grey, transversely barred with bluish black; on the lower surface it is bluish grey, with nine or ten bars of bluish black, shewn through from above, the bars gradually wider in the direction of the tip; under tail coverts, light yellowish orange, (Meyer says white,) as are the feathers on the legs, The legs and toes deep orange yellow; claws, as in the male. The young male is at first similar in plumage to the young 84 ORANGE-LEGGED HOBBY. female, but at the first moult it assumes a general bluish grey colour, the feathers on the legs being ferruginous; the bill, cere, legs, toes, and claws, are like those of the old bird. The young female has the bill, cere, and iris as in the adult; crown of the head, reddish brown with dusky streaks, the feathers tipped with lght red—a small moustache descends from the front of the eye; neck on the sides, pale reddish or yellowish white, with longitudinal brown streaks and_ blots. The throat white; breast, as the sides of the neck; back, dark brown, the feathers being tipped with reddish brown. Wing coverts, the same; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, dusky black, the inner edges and the tips being buff white. The tail dark brown, crossed with numerous bars of reddish brown; under tail coverts, deep ferruginous; legs, toes, and claws, as in the adult. 85 MERLIN. Falco esalon, PENNANT, Montacu. Bewick. FLEMING. Falco—To cut with a bill or hook. LEsalon—A species of Hawk, (Aristotle,) supposed to be the Merlin, or the Sparrow-Hawk. THoucH an Eagle, by comparison with some of the East Indian species of Hawks, the Merlin is the smallest that occurs in this country. In spirit it is ‘nulli secundus,’ inferior to none, and was accordingly used in former times in falconry for the pursuit of birds even much larger than itself, which it would frequently kill by a single blow on the head, neck, or breast. The author of the ‘Book of Falconrie’ says that they were ‘passing good Hawks, and very skilful.’ Unlike the Sparrow-Hawk and the Kestrel, if pursued by swallows and other small birds, it has been known, instead of flying from them, to become in its turn the aggressor, and at once disperse them. Like the Hobby, it has been captured by its dashing through a pane in the window of a cottage, in pursuit of a yellow-hammer. This species appears to claim citizenship in all the four quarters of the globe. In Europe it is known in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, and France; in North America, in Asia Minor, and in Africa as far south as the Cape of Good Hope. It is more frequently met with in the northern, than in the southern parts of England, though in neither can it be said to be common. The former are its breeding districts. In Yorkshire, it has very frequently occurred, especially in the West-Riding: occasionally in Derbyshire. In Sussex, it has been repeatedly noticed in the wilder and less cultivated districts. In Berkshire, I once myself shot one, now many years ago. It was a beautiful female, flying up a brook down by which I was walking—an unfortuna e ‘rencontre’ for it—and fell, apparently quite dead, as indeed it proved to have been; but so remarkable was the similarity $6 MERLIN. of its plumage to the stones on which it had fallen at the side of the stream—a novel appropriation of its name of Stone Falecon—that I the less wondered at having before almost given up searching for it, and gone away with the belief that it had not been killed, but only wounded, and had run into some cover, than at finding it when I did. It is considered rare in Cornwall, (one was shot there in 1849, November 9th., near Falmouth, and one near Penryn,) Devon- shire, Dorsetshire, Kent, one at Dodington, in 1840, Essex, and Norfolk. It breeds in Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Cumber- land. It is uncommonly met with in the neighbourhood of Swinhope, Lincolnshire. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns mentions one recorded by Graves, as having been killed in Cambridge- shire. In Aberdeenshire, and other parts of Scotland, and in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, it also breeds. In Ireland it is indigenous, both in the northern and southern parts, throughout the whole of the year, but would seem to be somewhat locally migratory. It breeds on the mountains of the counties of Londonderry, Tyrone, and Down, as also in those of Waterford, Cork, Tipperary, and Kerry. In Wales, it breeds on Cader Idris, and in other parts. The Merlin is partially migratory in this country, being for the most part a constant resident in Scotland and the northern parts of England, but appearing to be only a winter visitant in the south. It has however, on one occasion, been known to breed in the county of Suffolk, and probably may have been overlooked in more frequent instances of the same kind in those wilder districts, such as Dartmoor, which are suitable to it. From a habit it has of perching on stones, it has acquired the name of the Stone Falcon, and as such was formerly described as a distinct species. It must have a fondness for the practice, for it carries it out even on those rocks which are left partially prominent by the receding tide, when hawking, as it sometimes does, on the margin of the sea. It is a very courageous bird—wild and shy, and according to Temminck, is able to endure a high degree of cold, and is described by him as being commonly found within the limits of the arctic circle. It is easily tamed, though it never becomes very familiar, and was accordingly in former times employed in the chase. Except when the young are hatched, it is difficult, on account of its wariness, to be MERLIN. 87 approached; it is only by accident that it is occasionally met with within gun-shot. The Merlin flies low, and with great ease and celerity. It suddenly sweeps by, and is gone almost before you have had time to glance at it, gliding along the side of a hedge or wood, and then over, or into it, and sometimes affording a more lengthened view, by its flight over the open fields, or the wide moor, where it may be seen following its prey through its devious track,: according to the nature of the ground. ‘In pursuit of prey,’ says Sir William Jardine, ‘the Merlin does not often mount above it and rush down, as we have generally seen the Peregrine, but at once gives chase, following the victim through all its turns and windings to escape, and unless cover is at hand, is generally successful.’ Its principal food consists of birds; and it attacks and slays those which are even double its own size, such as partridges, and also quails, plovers, and pigeons, as well as larks, linnets, starlings, sandpipers, snipes, chaffinches, blackbirds, swallows, thrushes, goldfinches, and others which are smaller; as also cockchaffers and other insects. In pursuit of shore birds, dunlins, ring dotterels, and others, it will course them to the edge of, and sometimes even over the water. It is so deter- mined on and in the capture of its prey, that it is difficult to make it leave that which it has secured, and which it often obtains by pouncing on it unawares, but it also chases it in the open air. The lesser birds it captures from the ‘ ground, but those which are too large to be thus borne off, it can only surprise when on the wing. It frequently perches on a stone or crag, flitting from one to another, as if for the purpose of surveying all around it, and when a flock of small birds comes within its ken, it singles out one from the rest, and is not attracted from it to any of the others. The nest is generally, in this country at least, built on the ground on open moors or heaths, frequently on the side of a ravine, in a tuft of heath or projection of a rock or bank, and when this is the case, is composed of very scanty materials —a few sticks, with heather, grass, or moss—the bare ground almost sufficing for the purpose. In other countries it appears, occasionally at all events, to be built in trees, and is then made of sticks, and lined with wool. In the Orkney and Shetland Islands, it is placed among precipitous and inaccessible rocks. The eggs are three, four, or five, in number; Bewick says 88 MERLIN. six; and Temminck five or six. They are bluish white, blotted, particularly at the thicker end, with deep reddish brown or greenish brown. They vary, however, much in colour. Some of the varieties are often similar to those of the Kestrel or Peregrine, others to those of the Sparrow-Hawk, but still more to those of the Hobby. They are of course, however, rather smaller than the former, and also, in this variety, browner in colour and more closely spotted with small dots. One has been obtained of a rich erimson red, blotted with a darker shade of the same. The female sits close at first, but if disturbed or alarmed more than once, becomes extremely shy. The male takes up a position near at hand on the top of some eminence, from whence he can perceive the approach of any intruder, of which he gives notice by shrill cries of alarm. Montagu says that an instance has been known of a Merlin building in a deserted crow’s nest. Male; upper parts deep greyish blue, each feather having a black central line; the lower parts dull ruddy yellow, with longitudinal dark brown oblong spots. Weight, from five to six ounces. Length, from eleven inches to a foot, or twelve inches and a half; (one described by Montagu was only ten inches long.) The male and female differ generally but little in size, compared with others of the Hawks. Bull, short, strong, pale blue at the base, blackish blue at the tip; cere, dull yellow; iris, dark brown; (one shot at Osberton, and described by J. S. Foljambe, Esq., had the iris yellow.) Head, large, broad, and flat; forehead and sides of the head, greyish ” white—the latter lined with black. There is a greyish white band over the eye, margined beneath with black. Crown, dark bluish or brownish grey, each feather streaked with black in the centre. Neck, short and thick-set, dull yellowish red, encircled with a reddish brown ring, spotted or streaked with black. From the corners of the mouth descend on each side a few black streaks, forming, though faintly, the moustache borne by all the true Falcons. Nape, banded with pale red; chin, white; throat, white, or greyish, or buff white; breast, dull yellowish red, sometimes deep orange brown; the shafts and a spot towards the end, dark brown. Back, deep greyish blue, lighter towards the tail—the feathers streaked in the centre with black, as are all the other bluish feathers of the back. The wings, which when closed, reach from within an inch and a quarter to two inches of the end of the tail, and expand MERLIN. §9 to about two feet four inches, have the primaries black, or blackish or bluish brown, tinged with grey—the outer margin of the first spotted with white, the inner webs spotted trans- versely with white; underneath they are of a paler colour, barred with white: the third feather is the longest, but the second is nearly as long; the fourth a little longer than the first; the fifth an inch shorter; secondaries, deep greyish blue, and curved inwards—the shafts black; tertiaries also greyish blue. Greater and lesser wing coverts, bluish grey—the shafts of the feathers black; greater and lesser under wing coverts, yellowish white, with dusky spots and streaks. The tail bluish grey; it generally has, but is sometimes without, from even only one, but commonly from three or five to six, and, ac- cording to Pennant, eight, and even thirteen dark bands; viz:—in the proportion of six on the middle feathers, to eight (probably age is the cause of the gradual difference in their number,) on the side ones, but which merge apparently into the smaller-named number—the last being the largest and darkest. The tail is five inches long; the feathers are twelve in number, being of nearly equal length, broad, and rounded: the tip is white, underneath it is barred with darker and lighter shades of grey, with the broad band and white tip. Legs, yellow, feathered in front more than one third down, and reticulated. The feathers are rufous, with dusky streaks; toes, yellow; the first the shortest; the third the longest; the fourth a little longer than the second: the front ones are connected at the base by a short membrane; claws, black. The female differs considerably from the male; upper parts dark bluish grey, tinged with brown—the feathers streaked with black; under parts yellowish white, with large brown spots. Weight, about nine ounces; length, about twelve inches and a half, occasionally as much as thirteen and a half or fourteen inches; bill, light blue, tipped with black. From the angle of the mouth extends a band of brown, formed by the markings on the middle of the feathers; cere, yellow; iris, as in the male; forehead, yellowish white; a yellowish line edged on the under side with blackish brown, extends over the eye; head, dark rufous brown, the feathers edged at the tip with red; crown, reddish brown, with dusky black streaks down the shafts of the feathers; neck, behind yellowish white, the feathers tipped with brown: there is a ring round it of yellowish white, streaked and spotted with dusky brown. The nape, inclining to rufous, and as the crown; chin and throat, white or yel- 90 MERLIN. lowish white, the feathers on the side being tipped with brown; breast, pale reddish yellow, or brownish or yellowish white, marked with many oblong spots of dark brown, larger than those of the male; back and wings, brown mixed with rufous, the shaft and centre of each feather being darker, and the edge tipped with red; greater wing coverts, brown, edged with dull yellowish white or light rufous, the centre of the feathers being grey; lesser wing coverts, greyish brown, bordered with rufous, the shafts being black. Primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, brownish black, spotted with light red spots on both the webs, and edged with red, the tips the same colour of a paler shade. Greater and lesser under wing coverts, brownish red, spotted and edged with yellowish white; tail coverts the same, edged the same. ‘he tail, which is greyish brown, or dusky, has five bars of very pale reddish brown or yellowish white spots, and the tip banded with greyish white; the side feathers have two light bars at the base; upper tail coverts, brown, edged with dull yellowish white; under tail coverts, white, with the exception of the feathers on the sides, which have each a line of brown. Legs, yellow, the long feathers streaked with brown; the shorter ones nearly white; toes, yellow; claws, black. The young birds when fully fledged, most resemble the adult female, but are lighter in colour; the males however less so than the females, and tinged with blue on the back. The former gradually assume more blue, but the latter change less. The centre of the feathers in the immature birds is dark brown edged with rufous, instead of being marked in the centre with grey. Bill, as in the adults; cere, dull yellow. A yellowish line extends over the eye; iris, brown, but subject to variations of shade, according to Selby; forehead, yellowish white; head streaked on the sides, which are yellowish red, with brown, and a band of the latter colour descends from the angle of the mouth; neck, yellowish behind, the feathers tipped with brown; chin, yellowish white; throat, yellowish white, the shafts of the feathers brown; breast, pale reddish yellow, streaked longitudinally with brown; back, dark brown, slightly tinged with blue, the feathers edged and marked with pale yellowish red in obscure spots, and streaked in the centre with dark brown or black; greater wing coverts, spotted with light reddish spots, and tipped with the same; primaries, very dark brown, indistinctly spotted on the outer webs with pale yellowish red, and tipped with the same, but paler; secondaries, MERLIN. 91 spotted in the same manner on both webs; tail, dark brown, barred with five distinct bands composed of pale reddish brown spots; the tip is reddish or greyish white: there are three other bars near the base; under tail coverts, partially streaked with a narrow brown line near the end; legs, dull yellow, the feathers marked with a brown streak. The males vary in colour as they advance in age, the blue on the back being tinged with brown at first, and becoming gradually of a purer hue. In some specimens also the breast is of a light yellowish red, and in others deep orange brown. In some the tail is without the dark bands, except the last and broadest one; and in others the middle feathers are without them, while they are apparent on the rest. The females differ less than the males, but assume more of the character of the plumage of the latter, especially on the upper parts, as they advance in age, 92 ICESTREL. WINDHOVER. STONEGALL. STANNEL HAWK, Falco Tinnunculus, Montacu. SELBY. Aceipiter alaudarius, BRIsson. Falco Tinnunculus. Faleo—To cut with a bill or hook. Tinnunculus—Conjectured from Zinnio—To chirp. THIS species is in my opinion, not only, as it is usually described to be, one of the commonest, but the commonest of the British species of Hawks. It is found in all parts of Europe—Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Lapland, Greece, and Switzerland; and also in Asia, in Siberia; in Central Africa, and at the Cape of Good Hope; and also, according to Meyer, in America. It is easily reclaimed, and was taught to capture larks, snipes, and young partridges. It becomes very familiar when tamed, and will live on terms of perfect amity with other small birds, its companions. It formed, and perhaps still forms, one of the so-called ‘happy family,’ to be seen, or which was lately to be seen, in London. The Kestrel has frequently been taken by its pursuing small birds into a room or building. It does infinitely more good than harm, if indeed it does any harm at all, and its stolid destruction by gamekeepers and others, is much to be lamented, and should be deprecated by all who are able to interfere for the preservation of a bird which is an ornament to the country. These birds appear to be of a pugnacious disposition, J. W. G. Spicer, Esq., of Esher Place, Surrey, writing in the ‘Zoologist, pages 654-5, says, ‘all of a sudden, from two trees near me, and about fifty yards apart, two Hawks rushed simultaneously at each other, and began fighting most furiously, screaming and tumbling over and over in the air. I fired and shot them both, and they were so firmly grappled together by their talons, that I could hardly separate them, though KESTREL. 93 dead. They were both hen Kestrels. What could have been the sudden cause of their rage? It was autumn, and there- fore they had no nests.’ In the next article, the following is recorded by Mr. W. Peachey, of Northchapel, near Petworth: —‘A few weeks ago, a man passing a tree, heard a screaming from a nest at the top. Having climbed the tree and put his hand into the nest, he seized a bird which proved to be a Kestrel; and at the same instant a Magpie flew out on the other side. The Kestrel, it appears, had the advantage in being uppermost, and would probably have vanquished his adversary, had he not been thus unexpectedly taken.” Two instances are related by the late Frederick Holme, Esq., of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the one of a male Kestrel having eaten the body of its partner, which had been shot, and hung in the branch of a tree—‘a piece of conjugal can- nibalism, somewhat at variance with the proverb, that ‘hawks don’t poke out hawks’ een;’ and the other as a set off, he says of ‘six of one, and half-a-dozen of the other,’ a pair of Kestrels in confinement having been left without their supper, the male was killed and eaten by the female before morning.’ In Yorkshire, the Kestrel is a common bird, as in most parts of England. In Cornwall it appears to be rare. One, a male, was shot, Mr. Cocks has informed me, at Trevissom, in January, 1850, by Master Reed; and others at Penzance and Swanpool, in 1846. In Scotland it is likewise generally distributed. In Ireland it is also common throughout the island. The debateable point respecting the natural history of the Kestrel, is whether it is migratory or not. Much has been written on both sides of this ‘vexata questio; and as much, or more, one may take upon oneself to say, will yet be written on the subject. My own opinion is against the idea of any migration of the bird beyond the bounds of this country. Stress has been laid, in an argument in favour of such a supposed movement, on the fact of the departure of the broods of young Kestrels from the scene of their birth. But who could expect them to remain in any one confined locality? Brood upon brood would thus accumulate, in even more than what Mr. Thornhill, in the ‘Vicar of Wakefield, calls a ‘reciprocal du- plicate ratio; a ‘concatenation of self-existences,’ which would doubtless soon find a lack of the means of subsistence in a neighbourhood calculated probably to afford sufficient food for only a few pairs. Unless in the case of the Osprey, which must 94 KESTREL. be admitted from the nature of its prey, brought together in vast profusion at the same period of time, to be an excep- tional one. I am not aware of any Hawks which build in company in the same way that rooks do: and I have never yet heard of a Kestrelry. The fact of the dispersion of the young birds is nothing more than might, from the nature of their habit of life, be looked for. ‘Their very parents may expel them, as is the case with other birds of the same tribe. They have come together from roaming over the face of the country, to some situation suitable for them to build in, and a like dispersion of their offspring is the natural course of things. As to any total, or almost total disappearance of the species in winter, it is most certainly not the general fact, whatever may appear to be the case in any particular locality or localities. The only one I ever shot, the brightest coloured specimen, by the way, I ever saw, was in the depth of winter, and it fell on the same day as did the Merlin which I have spoken of, as having had the misfortune to come across my path, upon snow-covered ground, with its beautiful wings stretched out, for the last time, poor bird. In the parts of Yorkshire in which I have lived, the county with reference to which the observations I have alluded to have been made, and I have lived in all three Ridings, though my assertion at present applies to the East only, I have never observed any diminu- tion in the number of Kestrels that are seen in the winter, from those which are to be seen in summer, hovering over the open fields. It would seem very possible, from the different observations that have been made, that they may make some partial migrations in quest of a better supply of food. Still after what I have said, I must not be understood as unhesitatingly asserting that none of our British born and bred Kestrels cross the sea to foreign parts. It would be presumptuous in any one to hazard such an assertion: in this, as in most other supposed matters of fact, our ignorance leaves but too abundant room for difference of opinion. “There be three things,’ says Solomon, ‘which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not; and one of these he declares to be the way of an Eagle in the air.’ We need not be ashamed of keeping company with him in a candid confession of our own shortsightedness. Since writing the above, I find that Mr. Macgillivray re- marks that in the districts bordering on the Frith of Forth, KESTRELD. 95 these birds are more numerous in the winter than in the summer, and he adds that probably ‘like the Merlin, this species merely migrates from the interior to the coast.’ And ‘in the north of Ireland, generally,’ says Mr. Thompson, ‘Kes- trels seem to be quite as numerous in winter as in summer, in their usual haunts.’ The Kestrel begins to feed at a very early hour of the morning. It has been known to do so even almost before it was light. Several others of this family, as I have before had occasion to observe, continue the pursuit of their prey until a correspondingly late hour in the evening. Other species of Hawk may be seen hovering in a fixed position in the air, for a brief space, the Common Buzzard for instance, but most certainly the action, as performed by the Kestrel, is both peculiar to and characteristic of itself alone, in this kingdom at least. No one who has lived in the country can have failed to have often seen it suspended in the air, fixed, as it were, to one spot, supported by its out-spread tail, and by a quivering play of the wings, more or less perceptible. It has been asserted that the Kestrel never hovers at a greater height from the ground than forty feet, but this is altogether a mistake. The very last specimen that I have seen thus poised, which was about a fortnight since, in Wor- cestershire, seemed to me as near as I could calculate its altitude, to be at an elevation of a hundred yards from the ground. 4 mean, of course, at its first balancing itself, for down, as the species is so often seen to do, it presently stooped, and then halted again, like Mahomet’s coffin, between sky and earth, then downwards again it settled, and then yet once again, and then glided off—the prey it had aimed at having probably gone under cover of some sort: otherwise it would have dropped at last like a stone upon it, if an animal very probably fascinated, and borne it off im- mediately for its meal. It is a bird of considerable powers of flight. Tame Kestrels kept by Mr. John Atkinson, of Leeds, having had their wings cut to prevent their escape, exhibited, he says, great adroitness in climbing trees. The food of the Kestrel consists of the smaller animals, such as field mice, and the larger insects, such as grasshoppers, beetles, and caterpillars: occasionally it will seize and destroy a wounded partridge, but when seen hovering over the fields in the peculiar and elegant manner so well illustrated by my 96 KESTREL. friend the Rev. R. P. Alington, in the engraving which is the accompaniment of this description, and from which the bird derives one of its vernacular names, it is, for the most part, about to drop upon an insect. Small birds, such as sparrows, larks, chaffinches, blackbirds, linnets, and goldfinches, frequently form part of its food, but one in confinement, while it would eat any of these, invariably refused thrushes. The larve of water insects have also been known to have been fed on by them, and in one instance a leveret or rabbit, and in another a rat. Slow-worms, frogs, and lizards are often articles of their food, as also earth-worms, and A. E. Knox, Esq. pos- sesses one shot in Sussex, in the act of killing a large adder. Another has been seen devouring a crab, and another, a tame one, the result doubtless of its education, as man has been defined to be ‘a cooking animal,’ a hot roasted pigeon. ‘De gustibus non disputandum.’ ‘The Kestrel,’ says the late Bishop Stanley, ‘has been known to dart upon a weasel, an animal nearly its equal in size and weight, and actually mount aloft with it. As in the case of the Eagle, it suffered for its temerity, for it had not proceeded far when both were observed to fall from a considerable height. The weasel ran off unhurt, but the Kestrel was found to have been killed by a bite in the throat.’ He adds also, ‘not long ago some boys observed a Hawk flying after a Jay, which on reaching, it immediately attacked, and both fell on a stubble field, where the contest appeared to be carried on; the boys hastened up, but too late to save the poor Jay, which was at the last gasp; in the agonies of death, however, it had contrived to infix and entangle its claws so firmly in the Hawk’s feathers, that the latter, unable to escape, was carried off by the boys, who brought it home, when on ex- amination, it proved to be a Kestrel.’ The Windhover has often been known to pounce on the decoy birds of bird-catchers, and has in his turn been therefore entrapped by them, in prevention of future losses of the same kind. | It is a curious fact that notwithstanding their preying on small birds, the latter will sometimes remain in the trees in which they are, without any sign of terror or alarm. They have been known to carry off young chickens and pigeons. When feeding on insects which are of light weight, they devour them in the air, and have been seen to take a cockchaffer in each claw. Bewick says that the Kestrel swallows mice whole, and ejects the hair afterwards from its mouth in round pellets KESTREL. 97 —the habit of the other Hawks. Buffon relates that ‘when it has seized and carried off a bird, it kills it, and plucks it very neatly before eating it. It does not take so much trouble with mice, for it swallows the smaller whole, and tears the others to pieces. The skin is rolled up so as to form a little pellet, which it ejects from the mouth. On putting these pellets into hot water to soften and unravel them, you _ find the entire skin of the mouse, as if it had been flayed.’ This, however, is said by Mr. Macgillivray, never to be the case, but that the skin is always in pieces. Probably in some instances there may be foundation for the assertion of the Count, but only as exceptions to the general rule. Meyer observes, which every one who has seen the bird will confirm, as frequently, though not always the case, that ‘when engaged in searching for its food, it will suffer the very near approach of an observer without shewing any alarm, or desisting from its employment, and continue at the elevation of a few yards from the ground, with out-spread tail, and stationary, except the occasional tremulous flickering of its wings; then, as if suddenly losing sight of the object of its search, it wheels about, and shifts its position, and is again presently seen at a distance, suspended and hovering in the same anxious search.’ In the ardour of the chase, the Windhover has been known to drive a lark into the inside of a coach as it was travelling along; and another to brush against a person’s head, in dashing at a sparrow which was flitting in a state of bewildered entrance- ment in a myrtle bush. Mr. Thompson mentions his having seen a Kestrel after a long and close chase of a swallow through all its turns and twists, become in its turn pursued by the same individual bird. They are often followed and teased by several small birds together, as well as by Rooks, as hereafter to be mentioned when treating of the latter bird. The note of the Windhover is clear, shrill, and rather loud, and is rendered by Buffon by the words ‘phi, pli, pli,’ Of fpri, pri, pri.’ I am indebted to my obliging friend, the Rev. J. W. Bower, of Barmston, in the Hast-Riding, for the first record that I am aware of, of the breeding of the Kestrel in confinement. The following is an extract from his letter dated November 30th., 1849, relating the circumstance:—‘A pair of Kestrels bred this summer in my aviary. The female was reared from a nest about four years ago, and the year after scratched a hole in the ground, and laid six or seven eggs, but she VoL. I. H 938 KESTREN. had no mate that year. Last winter a male Kestrel pursued a small bird so resolutely as to dash through a window in one of the cottages here, and they brought the bird to me. I put him into the aviary with the hen bird, and they lived happily together all the summer, and built a nest or scratched a hole in the ground, and she laid five eggs, sat steadily, and brought off and reared two fine young ones.’ Some pairs of Kestrels seem to keep together throughout the winter. About the end of March is the period of nidification. The young are at first fed with insects, and with animal food as they progress towards maturity. They are hatched the latter end of April, or the beginning of May. The nest, which is placed in rocky cliffs on the sea-coast or elsewhere, is also, when it suits the purpose of the birds, built on trees; in fact quite as commonly as in the former situations; sometimes in the holes of trees or of banks, as also occasionally on ancient ruins; the towers of churches, even in towns and cities, both in the country and in London itself, also in dove-cotes. Sometimes the deserted nest of a Magpie, Raven, or Jackdaw, or some other of the Crow kind is made use of. When built in trees, the nest is composed of a few sticks and twigs, put together in a slovenly manner, and lined with a little hay, wool, or feathers. When placed on rocks, hardly any nest is compiled—a hollow in the bare rock or earth serving the purpose. Mr. Thompson mentions a curious fact of a single female Kestrel* having laid and sat on four eges of the natural colour, in April, 1848, after having been four years in confinement. The eggs, which are of an elliptical form, and four or five in number, sometimes as many as six—six young birds having been found in one nest,—are dingy white, reddish brown, or yellowish brown, more or less speckled or marbled over with darker and lighter specks or blots of the same. Mr. Yarrell says that the fifth egg has been known to weigh several grains less than either of those previously deposited, and it has also less colouring matter spread over the shell than the others; both effects probably occasioned by the temporary constitutional exhaustion the bird has sustained. In the ‘Zoologist,’ page 2596, Mr. J. B. Ellman, of Rye, writes, ‘this year I received some eggs of the Kestrel, which were rather dirty; so after blowing them, I washed them in cold water, and much to my surprise the whole colour came off, leaving the eggs of a dirty yellow, speckled with drab. Not long after KESTREL. 99 this I received five eggs from another Kestrel’s nest, which were exactly like those 1 had previously, after they were washed.’ The following curious circumstance is thus pleasingly related by the Rev. W. Turner, of Uppingham, in the ‘Zoologist,’ pages 2296-7:—‘In the summer of 1847 two young Kestrels were reared from the nest, and proved to be male and female: they were kept in a commodious domicile built for them in an open yard, where they lived a life of luxury and ease. This sum- mer a young one of the same species was brought and put into the same apartment; and, strange to say, the female Kestrel, sensible (as we suppose) of the helpless condition of the new-comer, immediately took it under her protection. As it was too infantine to perch, she kept it in one corner of the cage, and for several days seldom quitted its side; she tore in pieces the food given to her, and assiduously fed her young charge, exhibiting as much anxiety and alarm for its safety as its real parent could have done. But what struck me as very remarkable, she would not allow the male bird, with whom she lived on the happiest terms, to come near the young one. As the little stranger increased in strength and intelligence, her attentions and alarm appeared gradually to subside, but she never abandoned her charge, and its sleek and glossy appearance afforded ample proof that it had been well cared for. The three are now as happy as confined birds can be. The late Frederick Holme, Esq., of Corpus Christi College, Oxtord, records that a nest of this species was observed to have been begun near that city; a trap was set, and five male birds were caught on successive days, without the oc- currence of a single female; the last of them ‘being a young bird of the year im complete female plumage.’ Again, at page 2765, the Rev. Henry R. Crewe, of Breadsall Rectory, Derbyshire, relates the following pleasmg anecdote:—‘About four years ago, my children procured a young Kestrel, which, when able to fly, I persuaded them to give it its liberty: it never left the place, but became attached to them. In the spring of the following year we missed him for nearly a week, and thought he had been shot; but one morning I observed him soaring about with another of his species, which proved to be a female. They paired, and laid several eggs in an old dove-cote, about a hundred yards from the Rectory; but being disturbed that season, as I thought, by some White Owls, the eggs were never hatched. The next spring he again brought a mate: they again built, and reared a nest 100 KESTRED. of young ones. Last year they did the same; but some mischievous boys took the young ones when just ready to fly. Though in every respect a wild bird as to his habits in the fields, he comes every day to the nursery window, and when it is opened, will come into the room and perch upon the chairs or table, and sometimes upon the heads of the little ones, who always save a piece of meat for him. His mate will sometimes venture to come within a yard or two of the house, to watch for him when he comes out of the room with his meat: she will then give chase, and try to make him drop it, both of them squealing and chattering to our great amusement. The male never leaves us; indeed he is so attached to the children, that if we leave home for a time he is seldom seen; but as soon as we return, and he hears the voices of his little friends calling him by name, he comes flying over the fields, squealing with joy to see them again. He is now so well known amongst the feathered tribes of the neighbourhood, that they take no notice of him, but will sit upon the same tree with him: even the Rooks appear quite friendly.’ Male; weight, about six ounces and a half; length, thirteen inches and a half, to even fifteen inches; Dill, pale blue, or bluish grey, the tip black, and the base close to the cere tinged with yellow; cere, pale orange, or yellow; iris, dark brown, approaching to black; the eyelids are furnished with short bristles; forehead, yellowish; head on the crown, ash grey, each feather being streaked m the centre with a dusky line; on the sides, the same colour tinged with yellow: there is a blackish grey mark near the angle of the mouth pointing downwards, and a line of the same along the inner and upper edge of the eye; neck and nape behind and on the sides, lead-colour, faintly streaked with black, with a purplish tinge, as is the case with the other black feathers; chin and throat, yellowish white, without spots; breast, pale yellowish red, each feather streaked with dark brown, and a spot near the end of the same; back, bright cinnamon red, the shafts of each feather being blackish grey, with a spot of the same colour near the end. The wings, which are rather long and broad, but narrow towards the ends, expand to the width of two feet three inches, and reach to within about an inch and a half from the tip of the tail: when closed they reach to within about two inches of it; greater wing coverts, brownish black, tinged KESTREL. 101 with grey; primaries, brownish black, tinged with grey, margined with a paler shade, and the inner webs thickly marked with white or reddish white; the second is the longest, the third almost the same length, the fourth a little longer than the first, which is nearly an inch shorter than the second; underneath barred with darker and paler ash colour; secondaries, as the back on the inner side, namely, on the outer web, the inner being dusky with reddish white markings; and on the outer side as the primaries; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white, the latter beautifully spotted with brown. The tail, which consists of twelve long rounded feathers, the middle ones being an inch and a half longer than the outer ones, is ash grey, or bluish grey; the shafts, and a bar, which shews through near the end, of an inch in breadth, blackish brown, or purple black, the tip greyish white; upper tail coverts, ash grey, or hght bluish grey, as the tail. The legs, whch are feathered in front more than a third down, and covered all round with angular scales, and the toes, bright yellow or orange: the third and fourth are connected at the base by a very short web. Claws, black, tinged with grey at the base. The female differs but little in size from the male, at least in comparison with others of the Hawks. Length, from fourteen inches and a half to fifteen inches and a half; bill, cere, and iris, as in the male. Head, reddish, slightly shaded with bluish grey; neck, chin, throat, and breast, pale yellowish red streaked with dark brown—those on the sides forming transverse bands; back, dull rust-colour, barred with dark brown, each feather having four bands of brown and three of red, and tipped with the latter, the shafts dark brown. The wings expand to the width of two feet four inches, or even to two feet and a half; the spots are less distinct than in the male. Greater and lesser wing coverts, darker than in the male; primaries, brown, with transverse spots of pale red; secondaries, marked as the back. Greater and lesser under wing coverts, reddish white or yellowish white, with oblong brown spots. The tail and upper tail coverts, as the head, and the former barred with about ten narrow bars of blackish brown, the end one nearly an inch in breadth, the tip reddish white. The under surface is more uniform in colour, and Jess distinctly barred than in the male. Under tail coverts, un- spotted, as in the male. The feathers on the legs streaked with small dark markings. 102 KESTREL. The young are at first covered with white down, tinged with light sand-colour; iris, bluish black: when fully fledged, the bill is light bluish grey, tipped with yellowish grey or horn-colour; cere, pale greenish blue; iris, dusky, tinged with grey. Head, light brownish red, streaked with blackish brown. At the first moult the bluish grey appears mixed with the red in the male, and becomes more pure as the bird advances in age. Neck on the sides, pale yellowish red streaked with dark brown; nape, as the head; chin, throat, and breast, pale yellowish red streaked with dark brown. Back, light red, but of a deeper shade than in the old birds—each feather crossed with dark brown bands. Greater and lesser wing coverts, dark brown, tipped and spotted with red; primaries, reddish brown, tipped with light red, and spotted with the same on the inner webs; secondaries, spotted on the outer webs and barred on the inner with red. The tail, light red, barred on the inner webs with eight bands of brown, the end one being three quarters of an inch in width; the tip dull reddish white, underneath it is light reddish yellow. At the first moult the bluish grey tint appears in the male, and the bars on both webs. The legs and toes light yellow; the feathers hght reddish yellow—some of them with a dusky line in the centre. Claws, brownish black, the tips being paler. The dark markings become smaller as the bird advances in age: those on the outer webs of the tail wear off first: those on the inner webs continue for two years. The female alters but little, assuming in a faint degree the greyish blue tint on those feathers which are of that colour in the male—the tail always remains barred. Ay 2 wins =n me \ ws S wr any oy” sn 103 CEE G GOSHAWK. Astur palumbarius, SeLBy. Gout. Falco palumbarius, PENNANT. Buteo palumbarius, FLEMING. Accipiter palumbarius, JENYNS. Astur—Conjectured from Asturia, in Spain. Palumbarius— Palumba—A Pigeon. Tuts species occurs in Europe, Asia, Africa, and perhaps in America; in the former, it has been known in Holland, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, and Switz- erland; in Asia, in Chinese Tartary and Siberia; North Africa, also in North America, according to some opinions. The Goshawk, though a short-winged species, and differing therefore in its flight from those most esteemed in falconry, was highly valued in that art, and flown at hares and rabbits, pheasants, partridges, grouse, ducks, geese, herons, and cranes. In Yorkshire, the only occurrence of this bird on record, was at Cusworth, near Doncaster, where one was killed in_ the year 1825, by the gamekeeper of W. B. Wrightson, Ksq., M.P. A fine specimen in immature plumage was shot at Westhorpe, near Stowmarket, in the county of Suffolk, on the 20th. of November, 1849. An adult male was trapped by a gamekeeper in the same county, in the month of March, 1833; and in November in the same year, another was obtained in the adjoining county of Norfolk: it had alighted on the rigging of a ship, and was brought into Yarmouth. An immature male Goshawk was killed near Bellingham, in Northumberland, in the month of October, in the same year. A very fine female was shot at Bolam Bog, in the same county, on the 18th. of February, 1841. Another female near the Duke of North- umberland’s Park, at Alnwick, in the same year; and again a fourth, also a female, was caught in a trap near Beddington, by the gamekeeper of Michael Langridge, Esq. Dr. Moore records it as having been found occasionally on Dartmoor, 104 GOSHAWK. in Devonshire. One was caught near Egham, in Surrey, early in the year 1846, in the following curious manner:—It was perched upon a gate-post, so intently engaged in watching a flock of starlings, that it did not perceive the approach of a man who came behind it, and caught it by its legs. In the Orkney Islands it is not very unfrequently seen, accor- ding to Mr. Low, in his ‘Fauna Oreadensis,’ and also Mr. Forbes: it most probably occurs in the Hebrides also, if the fact be so, but Mr. Yarrell doubts whether the Peregrine may not have been mistaken for it. In Ireland, Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, says that it cannot be authentically determined to have occurred. In Scotland it seems to be indigenous, particularly in the central parts, in the Grampians of Aberdeenshire; on the Rivers Spey and Dee, where it has been said by Pennant to breed, and in the forest of Rothiemurcus, where it is known to do so. One was killed near Dalkeith. Mountains as well as level districts are frequented by the Goshawk, but in either case it seems to prefer a variety of woodland and open country, and not to be partial either to the dense monotony of a forest, or the dangerous exposure of an open unsheltered plain. Mudie says that it also dwells in the rocky cliffs of the sea coast, but he gives no authorities for, or instances of, this being the case. In general habits this species is considered to resemble the Sparrow-Hawk. At night it roosts in coppice wood in preference to lofty trees, and the lower parts of such instead of the top, rarely on rocks in the more open part of the country. ‘When at rest,’ says Meyer, ‘he sits in a slouching attitude, with his . back raised, and his head rather depressed; but does not drop his tail in the manner that some other birds of prey are in the habit of domg.’ The male is said to be a much more spirited bird than the female, and to have been on this account the rather valued in the gay science; though its training was more difficult than that of some other species. It was flown at hares, rabbits, pheasants, grouse, partridges, pigeons, wild-geese, and herons. Great havoc is committed in preserves when the young ones are expecting food in the nest. At other seasons of the year the more open country is traversed for its own suppl by the Goshawk. Like several others, perhaps all of the Hawk kind, the one before us is the object of the persevering and unaccountable attacks of the Rooks. Who that has lived in the country has not seen this, and observed it even from his childhood? Yet there are those, whose lot has unfortunately GOSHAWK. 105 been cast in towns, who have never seen even so common a sight as this. I well remember, travelling some years ago on a stage coach over the Dorsetshire Downs, a lady who was going down into Devonshire with her son from London, seeing some gleaners in a field, observed that they were the first she had seen that year: ‘they are the first,’ said the youth, ‘that I have ever seen in my life.’ This bird for the most part flies low in pursuit of its prey, which it attacks from below or sideways, not from above like other Falcons, but occasionally it soars at a considerable elevation, wheeling round and round with extended tail, in slow and measured gyrations. Its flight is very quick, though its wings are short, and its game is struck in the air, if belong- ing to that element. The food of the Goshawk, which is carried into its retreat in the woods, to be devoured there without interruption, consists of hares, rabbits, and sometimes mice; and of pigeons, pheasants, partridges, grouse, wild-ducks, crows, rooks, magpies, and other birds. ‘According to Meyer, says Selby, it will even prey upon the young of its own species.’ Living prey alone is sought, and before being devoured it is plucked carefully of the fur or feathers—very small animals are swallowed whole, but the larger are torn in pieces, and then swallowed: the hair or fur is cast up in pellets. Sometimes a pigeon is heedlessly followed into a farm-yard, and sometimes the ‘biter is bit? in the ignoble trap, in the act of attempting, like the Kestrel, to carry off the decoy birds of the fowler. Its appetite, ‘though it is a shy bird, leads it into these difficulties, and so, again, when replete with food, and enjoying, it may be, a quiet ‘siesta,’ the sportsman steals a march, and down falls the noble Goshawk. Yarrell says that in following its prey, ‘if it does not catch the object, it soon gives up the pursuit, and perching on a bough waits till some new game presents itself.’ ‘Its mode of hunting,’ says Bishop Stanley, ‘was to beat a field, and when a covey was sprung to fly after them, and observe where they settled; for as it was not a fast flyer, the Partridges could outstrip it in speed: it then sprung the covey again, and after a few times the Partridges became so wearied that the Hawk generally succeeded in securing as many as it pleased. To catch it a trap or two was set in its regular beat, baited with a small rabbit, or the stuffed skin of one; but a surer mode, particularly in open unenclosed countries, was by preparing what were called bird-bushes, about half-a-mile 106 | GOSHAWK. from each other. A large stake was driven into the ground and left standing, about seven feet in height; bushes and boughs were then laid round this post and kept loosely open, and hollow at the bottom, to the extent of ten or twelve yards round the post, for the Partridges to run into when pursued by the Goshawk, which they usually did after being disturbed two or three times. The Goshawk finding itself disappointed, and unable to follow them with its long wings amongst the bushes and briers, after flying round them for some turns, was sure to perch upon the top of the post, as the only resting- place at hand, and was as sure to be taken by a trap set there for the purpose.’ ‘His voice in times of danger,’ says Meyer, ‘is a loud single note, many times repeated, and bears a great resemblance to that of the Sparrow-Hawk; besides this cry, he utters another much resembling the note of the Peregrine-Falcon, which is chiefly used when engaged in a contest with some other bird of prey. Its nest is said to be built in tall fir or other trees, near the trunk, and to be large in size, flat in shape, and composed of sticks, grass, and moss, loosely put together. The bird is believed to be in the habit frequently of occupyimg it for several years in succession, making the necessary repairs from time to time. Mr. Hewitson says that it ‘is placed in some high tree in the interior of the woodland, except in those parts which are cleared, and free from timber.’ During the time that the female is sitting she is fed by the male. The eggs are from two to five in number, greenish or bluish white, often with and sometimes without, or nearly without streaks and spots of brown, or reddish, or yellowish brown. They are hatched about the middle of May, after an incubation of about three weeks. The Goshawk is very strong and robust in make. Male; length, from one foot six, to one foot nine inches; bill, light blue at the base, bluish black towards the end, and bristled on the sides; cere, yellow; iris, bright yellow in the fully adult bird; over the eye is a broad white line spotted with black; head, flat, dark brownish black on the crown; neck, as the back, behind, the base of the feathers white, dull white in front; nape, white at the under end of the feathers, which are tipped with brownish black. Chin and throat, white, streaked with dusky; breast, greyish white, transversely waved with small bars of greyish black; each feather has GOSHAWK. 107 several bars; the shafts of the same colour; back, dark bluish erey tinged with brown; there is an evanescent bloom of ash colour on the living bird, which fades away shortly after it is dead. Wings, rather short; expanse about three feet seven inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, as the back; primaries, brown, barred with a darker shade, except towards the tips, which are dark brown; the shafts reddish, the inner margins whitish, especially towards the base; underneath, greyish white, the dark bars shewing through; secondaries and tertiaries, as the back; greater and lesser under wing coverts, barred with dusky transverse lines. The tail, which is long, wide, and rounded at the end, is brownish grey, with four, five, or six broad bands of blackish brown; the final band the widest, the tip white, the shafts yellowish brown, the base white; upper tail coverts, as the back; under tail coverts, white, with a few slight dark markings. The legs, which are yellow, of moderate length, and feathered rather more than a third down, are reticulated on the sides, and behind and_ before with large scales or plates: the feathers on the legs are shafted and marked as the breast, but the bars are narrower; toes, strong and yellow, the third and fourth united by a web which extends as far as the second joint of each; the first and second are nearly equal in size, the fourth longer and more slender, the third much longer; the sole of the foot is prominently embossed; claws, black, strong, and very sharp. The female is much larger than the male, but closely re- sembles him in colour, the plumage only on the back bemg of a browner tint. When very old there is hardly any apparent difference between them. Length, from one foot ten to two feet two inches; bill, horn colour or bluish black; breast, as in the male, but tinged with rust colour; back, dark brown. The wings expand to about three feet nine inches; the bars on the tail are of a dark brown. The young birds are at first covered with white or buff- coloured down. Bill, dark brown, paler at the base; cere, greenish yellow; iris, grey, pale yellow, reddish or yellowish orange, according to age: there is a white band over the eye, speckled with brown; head, reddish brown, the centre of each feather broadly streaked with dark brown, and edged with light yellowish red; crown, dark reddish brown, the feathers edged with dull white or rufous; neck behind, yellowish or 108 GOSHAWK. reddish white, or light brown streaked with dark brown. Nape, light reddish brown, with an oblong dusky mark on the centre of each feather; throat, white or cream white, speckled with brown; breast, reddish or yellowish white, streaked longitudinally with brown on the centres of the feathers, the shafts still darker, narrowing towards the tip of each, until after the second moult: when the transverse bars appear, they are at first fewer in number and larger than in after years; back, reddish or yellowish brown, the feathers edged with a paler shade, or yellowish white; primaries, dusky, with dark brown, and tipped with whitish; secondaries and tertiaries, dusky, with greyish brown bars; greater and lesser under wing coverts, light brown, or rufous white, streaked as the feathers on the breast; tail, greyish brown, with four or five bars of blackish brown alternating with the former colour, and tipped with white; underneath, greyish white, barred with five bars of greyish brown; tail coverts as the back; under tail coverts as the breast, but only marked with brown at the tips. Legs and toes, dull yellow, inclining to green at the joints: the feathers on the legs are light brown or rufous white, streaked, but only on the shafts, as the feathers on the breast; claws, brownish black, those of the inner toes larger than those of the outer. The young female is lighter coloured than the young male, and the dark markings on the breast are larger. It is some years before the fine grey of the back and the bluish white of the breast are assumed. White varieties of this species have been sometimes met with, and some of a tawny colour with a few brown markings. ‘I have compared,’ says Macgillivray, ‘British and French with American specimens, both in the adult and young states, and am perfectly persuaded that no real difference exists between them. Were we to form specific distinctions upon such trifling discrepancies as are exhibited by the Goshawk of America and that of Europe, we might find that our common ptarmigan, our bullfinch, wheatear, and kestrel, are each of two or three species. Cuvier, in my opinion, very strangely refers to the ‘Falco atricapillus’ of Wilson, which is the American Goshawk, as a species of ‘Hierofalco,’ that is, as intimately allied to the Jer-Falcon. The only name by which this species is known in Britain, is that prefixed to this article, but variously written—Goshawk, Goss-hawk, or Gos-hawk, and apparently a corruption of Goose Hawk.’ : SPARROW -HAWK. 109 SPARROW-HAWK. GWEPIA, OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH. Accipiter Fringillarius, SHaw. SeELsy. Falco nisus, Linnzus, LATHAM. Buteo nisus, FLEMING. Accipiter. Accipio—To take. Fringillarius. Fringilla—A Finch. ‘Take it for all in all, there is perhaps no bird of the Hawk kind more daring and spirited than the one before us—next to the Kestrel, the most common of the British species of that tribe. It hunts in large woods, as well as in the open fields, and may frequently be seen sweeping over hedges and ditches in every part of the country. In the winter the males and females, like the chaffinches, appear to separate: the motive is of course unknown. The Sparrow-Hawk is very numerons in various parts of the world; throughout Europe, from Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, to Spain; in Africa, even as far as the Cape of Good Hope; in Asia Minor and Japan; but does not occur, I believe, in America. It is numerous also in Ireland and Scotland, and occurs likewise in the Hebrides. It prefers cultivated to uncultivated districts, even when the latter abound in wood, though wooded districts are its favourite resorts. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns says that in Cambridgeshire the males are much less frequently seen than the females; and this observation appears to be also general in its application, not as we may suppose from any disparity sn numbers between the two, but from the female being of a more bold, and the male of a more shy and retiring disposition. The organ of combativeness, according to phrenologists, would appear to be largely developed in this bird: it seems to have universal letters of marque, and to act the part of a 110 SPARROW-HAWK. privateer against every thing that sails in its way—a modern specimen of ‘Sir Andrew Barton, Knight.’ It will fearlessly attack in the most pugnacious manner even the monarch of the air—the Golden Eagle, and has been known so far to obtain the mastery, as to make him drop a grouse which he had made a prize of: one has been seen after a first buffet, to turn again and repeat the insult; and another dashed in the same way at a tame Sea Eagle of R. Langtry, Esq., of Fortwillam, near Belfast. The Sparrow-Hawk occasionally perches on some projection or eminence of earth, stone, or tree, from whence it looks out for prey. If successful in the ken, it darts suddenly off; or if otherwise, launches into the air more leisurely. When prowling on the wing, it sweeps along, apparently with no exertion, swiftly, but gently and stealthily, at one moment eliding without motion of the wings, and then seeming to acquire an impetus for itself by flapping them; every obstacle in the way being avoided with the most certain discrimination, or surmounted with an aerial bound. Sometimes for a few moments it hovers over a spot, and after flying on a hundred yards or so, repeats the same action, almost motionless in the air. Its flight is at times exceedingly rapid, and it was formerly employed in the art of falconry, for hunting par- tridges, landrails, and quails. It often flies late in the evening. ‘During the course,’ says Sir William Jardine, ‘some stone, stake, or eminence is often selected for a temporary rest; the station is taken up with the utmost lightness—the wings closed with a peculiar quiver of the tail, and the attitude assumed very nearly perpendicular, when it often remains a few minutes motionless; the flight is again resumed with as little preparatory movement as it was suspended.’ It takes its prey both in the air and on the ground, but so great is the celerity of its flight, that a spectator sometimes cannot tell whether it has seized it on the latter or in the former element. Unlike the Kestrel, which has a predilection for quadrupeds, the food of this species consists principally of the smaller birds, and some that are larger—snipes, larks, Jays, blackbirds, swallows, sparrows, lapwings, buntings, pigeons, partridges, thrushes, pipits, linnets, yellow-hammers, bullfinches, finches, as also, occasionally, mice,, cockchaffers and other beetles, grasshoppers, and even sometimes when in captivity, its own species: small birds are devoured whole, even legs and all; SPARROW-HAWE. lil the larger are plucked. Of two which IJ lately had in my possession, kept in an empty greenhouse, one was found dead one morning, and partly devoured; and I have heard of another similar instance. Whether it had died a natural or a violent death is uncertain; but as they quarrelled over their food—they were both females—the latter is the most probable. Mr. Selby says that he has often known such cases. The first blow of the Sparrow-Hawk is generally fatal, such is the determined force with which, with unerring aim it rushes at its victim; sometimes indeed it is fatal to itself. One has been known to have been killed by dashing through the glass of a greenhouse, in pursuit of a blackbird which had sought safety there through the door; and another in the same way by flying against the windows of the college of Belfast, in the chase of a small bird. The voracity and destructiveness of this species is clearly shewn by the fact, witnessed by A. E. Knox, Esq., of no fewer than fifteen young pheasants, four young partridges, five chickens, two larks, two pipits, and a bullfinch, havimg been found in and about the nest of a single pair at one time. ‘The young appeared to have been catered for in the place of their birth by their parents, even after they were able to fly to some distance from it. A pigeon has been known to have been carried by a female Sparrow-Hawk, a distance of one hundred and fifty yards. Small birds in their turn sometimes pursue and tease their adversary in small flocks, but generally keeping a respectful distance; either a little above, or below, or immediately behind: their motive, however, is at present, and will probably remain, like many other arcana of nature, inexplicable. u MARSH HARRIER. 117 MARSH HARRIER. MOOR BUZZARD. WHITE-HEADED HARPY. PUTTOCK. DUCK HAWK. Circus rufus, Brisson. SELBY. Falco eruginosus, Linnazus. PENNANT. ‘© arundinaceus, BECHSTEIN. Circus—The Greek name of some species of Hawk. Rufus—Red. Wuy the birds of the genus at which we have now arrived should be called Harriers more than any others of the Hawk family, I know not. Yarrell suggests that the origin of the name has probably been derived from their beating the ground somewhat in the manner of a dog hunting for game. Their natural order is certainly in close proximity to the Owls; the most remarkable ‘feature’ of similarity being the ruff-like circle of feathers round the face, somewhat after the fashion of what in the human subject is called a calf-lick, and which is set up or depressed by the voluntary action of the bird. These Harriers are found in the temperate regions of three, if not four quarters of the globe. They are common in Norway and Sweden, Denmark and the south of Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, and Turkey; less frequently in Switzerland, and the south of Europe: in Egypt, and other parts of Africa; the Himalaya Mountains, Asia Minor, and other districts of Asia. Wilson and Buonaparte consider this species to be the same as the American one they describe by the name of the Marsh Hawk, but several distinctive marks, as for example the difference in the length of the tail beyond the wings, will appear on reading their account, though they are right in overruling the erroneous reason given by Pennant, namely, the thickness of the legs, for supposing the birds distinct; whether, therefore, our species is found in America, I am not able to say. 118 MARSH HARRIER. In this country they are indigenous, remaining with us all the year round, in most of the counties of England and Wales; in Ireland, from Antrim to Cork; in Scotland and the Hebrides. Their numbers however, like those of so many others of the birds of prey, are becoming gradually fewer, and anything but ‘beautifully less.’ From Scotland to Sussex an ornithological lament over the glories of the departed is raised. ‘Fuimus’ must soon be the motto of the Marsh Harrier, as well as of ‘the Bruce,’ They frequent, as the name suggests, open moors and wild plains, in which marshes or lakes are found, but appear to be partially ‘migratory. Attempts have been made to train them for falconry, but they have been found very intractable. The flight of these birds, which is not very swift, is light and airy, but unsteady. Occasionally they rise to so great a height as to be all but invisible to the eye, and at the time when the female is sitting, the male is often to be seen soaring above the nest, and performing a variety of attractive evolutions. They seldom alight on trees, even to roost at night, but resort to the concealment of beds of reeds, and in the day-time perch on a hillock, a rail, or the ground. They do not long remain stationary, but keep beating their hunting grounds in search of prey, and they often frequent the same locality for several days together, and follow the like course at the same hour of the day. The food of the Marsh Harrier consists of rabbits, water- rats, mice, and other small animals, whether found dead or alive; land and water reptiles, the young of geese, ducks, and other water-fowl, and of partridges; as also small birds, such as quails and larks; the eggs of birds, insects, and Bewick and others say fish, and Mudie large carrion. They take their prey from the ground or the water, not in the air. In the autumn they sometimes leave the moors, and come down to the coast in quest of sea-birds, perching on the rocks until they perceive any that they can seize. A singular anecdote of one of this species, communicated by Mr. R. Ball, is recorded in Mr. Thompson’s ‘Natural History of Ireland:’— ‘One of these birds, which I had some years since, lost a leg by accident. I supplied it with a wooden one, and the dexterity it acquired with this stump, both in walking and killing rats, was astonishing. When a rat was turned out, the bird pounced at it, and never failed to pin the animal’s head to the ground with the stump, while a few grasps of MARSH HARRIER. 119 the sound limb soon terminated the struggle.’ This reminds one of the gallant Witherington immortalized in ‘Chevy Chase,’ ‘For when his legs were shot away, he fought upon his stumps.’ Towards the end of the month of March, nidification com- mences, and incubation in April; the young are hatched in May. The nest is usually built in the high reeds which fringe the margin of the lake, pond, or swamp; in a tuft of rushes, fern, or furze; on a mound, at the edge of a bush, or on the top of the stump, or in the hollow of the branches of some tree in the former situation. It is a very rude fabrication, and composed of sticks, with reeds, flags, sedge, rushes, grass, or leaves; sometimes forming a mass a foot and a half above the ground. The eggs are from three to five in number, slightly tapered at one end, and generally perfectly white, or white with a slight tinge of blue. Bewick says that they are irregularly spotted with dusky brown; and Macgillivray describes some he had seen which had a few faint light brown marks. This species varies exceedingly in plumage. Male; weight, about twenty-one ounces; length; one foot seven to one foot nine inches; bill, bluish black; cere, yellow; iris, yellow; head, but sometimes only the crown, yellowish or white; in some specimens the shafts are dark; in others, it, as well as the whole of the plumage, is ferruginous brown; in others it is yellowish white tinged with rufous, and streaked with dark brown; and in others, only a shade lighter than the rest of the brown plumage. The upper part of the neck is en- circled by a ruff of stiff feathers; nape, yellowish white, or white; chin and throat, nearly white. Breast, ferruginous brown, streaked with a darker shade; the shoulders are some- times white. Back, ferruginous brown, the feathers margined with a lighter shade The wings, when closed, reach nearly to the end of the tail; greater wing coverts, ferruginous brown, but in older birds partially or entirely ash grey; and in some tipped with reddish brown; sometimes yellow; lesser wing coverts, the same; primaries, brownish black, or dark grey in old birds; the third is the longest in the wing; the first and second are short; secondaries, ash grey, tipped in some cases with reddish brown; tertiaries, ferruginous brown, margined with a lighter shade; in old birds partially or entirely ash grey; larger and lesser under wing coverts, light brown. ‘Tail, ash grey; in some instances tipped with reddish brown; tail coverts, ferruginous 120 MARSH HARRIER. brown; under tail coverts, the same, each feather streaked with dark brown. Legs, long and yellow, feathered to within three inches of the foot; toes, long and yellow; claws, black and slender, and not much hooked; the outer and middle ones are united by a membrane, and the latter 1s somewhat dilated on the inner edge. Female; weight, twenty-eight ounces and a half; length, from one foot ten inches to two feet; bill, dusky or bluish black; cere, yellow; iris, yellow; Selby says dark brown; but this must be a young bird. Head, yellowish, sometimes streaked with brown. ‘The neck is surrounded by a ruff of stiff feathers; nape and chin, as in the male; throat, as the head; breast, reddish brown; back, dark brown. The wings expand to the width of four feet five or six inches. Greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, greater and lesser under wing coverts, tail, and tail coverts, legs, toes, and claws, as in the male. . The young in the first year, formerly described as a separate species by the name of the Moor Buzzard, have the bill bluish black; cere, pale yellowish green; iris, dark brown; crown of the head, dark cream-colour. Neck, nape, and chin, brown; throat, yellowish white or light rust-colour; breast and back, dark reddish brown with a metallic tint. Greater wing coverts, sometimes tipped with white; lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, as the back. Larger and _ lesser under wing coverts, brown of a lighter shade; tail underneath, pale ash grey; tail coverts, as the back. Legs and toes, pale yellowish green; claws, black. In their second summer the plumage becomes more rufous in some parts, the tail lighter coloured, and on the ruff and the shoulders, and front of the neck, some yellowish white spots shew themselves; and an ash grey gradually spreads itself on the greater wing coverts. In the third year, the back is light rufous brown; the tail pale grey, without any bars, and its under surface, as are the wings underneath the quill feathers, of a silvery white. Latham describes a specimen of this bird as of a uniform brown, with a tinge of rust-colour; Montagu one which had the head, some of the wing coverts, and the four first quill feathers, white; Selby one which had the four quill feathers, throat, part of the wing, and the outer tail feathers, white; and the Rev. Leonard Jenyns one of which the lower half of the breast was white, and others spotted with white in various parts. Some have the upper part of the breast, and others MARSH HARRIER. b21 part of the back of the neck white; others, without the white head, have a greyish spot on the throat. Sir Wilham Jardine describes one as entirely brown, excepting the forehead and back of the head, throat, sides of the mouth, and tips of the quills, which were white; another, pale reddish brown, the upper tail coverts and base of the outer tail feathers pale yellowish red, the former shewing a bar; the back of the head pure white, extending over each eye. I have much gratification in communicating the following new theory of what will, I have hardly a doubt, prove to be the fact of the case respecting the striking changes in the plumage of this bird. Mr. Arthur Strickland has written down for me the substance of a previous conversation on the subject, as follows:—‘This bird has a regular periodical change of plumage, that has not, as far as I know, been before explained. It begins life in a dark plain brown plumage, with a distinctly defined dark cream-coloured head; it then leaves this country, as it is a regular migratory species; it returns the next spring in a much lighter brindled brown plumage, with a pale orange-coloured head, which pale orange in old specimens extends over part of the neck and shoulders; but in the intermediate time it has undergone a marked change of plumage, losing entirely all portions of the cream-colour of the head, which is in fact only a breeding state of dress. In this winter dress it is of very rare occurrence in this country, but if by chance it does occur, it will be found as above described, in all respects answering the description of the Harpy Hawk of Brisson; but specimens taken upon their first arrival in spring, may be often got with the cream- coloured head only partly developed.’ It is a very curious fact that Mr. Arthur Strickland has met with no young birds from the nests in Yorkshire without the white cap on the head, and the Rev. Leonard Jenyns none in Cambridgeshire that had it; and further, in a com- munication to Mr. Allis, Mr. Strickland says that the only adult bird without the white cap he ever saw, was from Cambridgeshire, which is certainly very singular. Can there be two species confounded together? 122 HEN HARRIER. WHITE HAWK. DOVE HAWK. BLUE HAWK, (MALE.) RINGTAIL, (FEMALE.) Circus cyaneus, FLEMING. SELBY. Falco cyaneus, MonrTaau. “ — torquatus, BRISSON. “ pygargus, LINNZUS. Circus—The Greek name of some species of Hawk. Cyaneus—Blue—blue-coloured. Ir is somewhat surprising that Mr. Yarrell should appear to give Montagu the credit of determining that the two supposed species, the Hen Harrier and the Ringtail, are identical, when the fact had been long previously observed by Willughby. ‘It has become known,’ says Yarrell, ‘on account of a sup- posed vartiality to some part of the produce of the farm-yard, by the more general name of Hen Harrier.’ The Kite and the Sparrow-Hawk have, however, an equal claim to the distinction. ‘The male,’ says Mr. St. John, ‘is distinguished from afar by his nearly white plumage.’ Bewick’s description of this bird seems to me, in some particulars to apply to the next species. The Hen Harrier is widely distributed, being found in the low and flat districts of France, Germany, Holland, Scandi- navia, Russia, Italy, Turkey, Greece, and other countries of Europe; in India, Japan, Asia Minor, Siberia, and other parts of Asia; in Africa; and possibly in New Holland, and in America; but Selby observes that some doubts still remain as to the specific identity of the latter species and ours. In this country it is generally dispersed in England, Ire- land, and Scotland, though in no part numerous. It is a perennial inhabitant of the Hebrides and Orkneys. It seems “TTT a4 YavVAH NAH ’ Wigrappydl th oe H| Af, a ' \ \ yj Aine tu} Mt st) iV ute ik : ry NO 1) xf of LN ae ath ¢ ye a 5 } Py 7 a ar 4 % a Set 4 . mi biden) eee me = Pans f i of i Jy So | ecg 6" ie { e bag es ; ' Vi A 7 7 5 a ; a Ih x , » ,¥ ~*~ 9 Cy « * 4 ’ - +i i ? u cathe * = 04 ’ tar vf i a 3 ’ hen J — Pra 1 ; * 4 ay ™ Ne % AS *s We Sere 1 Set er, Per ‘gad f rr -, 7 7) ‘ an i ae a is HEN HARRIER. 133 to frequent the lower lands in the winter, and the higher in the summer. The Hen Harrier attaches itself to open wastes, downs, and commons, wide moors, fens, and marshy situations. It appears to roost only on the ground, and is easily trapped. Its flight is low, but light and buoyant, though not very swift. Sometimes it hovers in the air for a short time, some- what in the manner of the Kestrel: again it sails on motionless pinions, but generally with quick pulsations of the air. Before commencing the nest, both birds may be seen soaring about and sporting in the air: occasionally they do so at a con- siderable elevation, wheeling in circles. Its attitude when settled, is nearly erect, and it generally selects some little eminence to alight on. It beats its hunting grounds with regularity, both of plan and time, and with careful investigation. Game, both old and young—curlews, partridges, pheasants, fowls, lapwings, buntings, larks, snipes, stonechats, and other larger and smaller birds, leverets, rabbits, rats, mice, and other small animals, lizards, vipers, snakes, and frogs, and occasionally dead fish compose its food, and all these it pounces on on the ground. If it does chase any thing in the air, it does not seize it there, but drives it first to the earth. One, however, has been seen flying off with a grouse. Mr. Thompson relates of another as follows:—‘A sportsman having killed a snipe, was in the act of reloading his gun, when the Hawk sweeping quickly past him, made a stoop to carry off the snipe, and when just seizing the bird, was itself brought down by the second barrel.’ No fewer than twenty lizards were found in one which was killed near London. In one kept in confine- ment, the upper bill grew so much hooked as almost to prevent the bird from feeding; but by cutting half an inch off it, the difficulty was removed. The note is loud and clear, and resembles in some degree that of the Kestrel. The nest, which is built on open wastes, and frequently in a furze’cover, and placed on or near the ground, is composed of sticks rudely put together, sedge, reeds, flags, and other coarse materials. It is made of considerable height, as much as a foot and a half; perhaps as a safeguard against flood. One has been known thus raised to the height of four feet— perhaps a second story had been added to a former tenement. The male assists the female occasionally in the task of incu- 124 HEN HARRIER. bation. ‘The young are hatched early in June: both parents are said to supply them with food. The eggs are four or five in number, sometimes, I believe, six; and most frequently white, or bluish, or greenish white, and in some instances more distinctly spotted, but often slightly marked with yellowish brown, or light brown. Bewick describes some as of a reddish colour, with a few white spots. Male; weight, about twelve or thirteen ounces; length, from sixteen to eighteen inches, or eighteen inches and a half; bill, black; cere, yellow; iris, yellow; a number of bristles almost hide the cere at the base of the bill. ‘The head, which is bluish grey, is surrounded by a wreath of short stiff feathers, white at the base, and slightly tipped with grey; neck, ash grey; nape, the same, but occasionally mottled with brown, as are other parts of the plumage while in the changing state; chin and throat, fine ight grey. Breast on the upper part, grey; on the lower part white, or bluish white. Montagu describes one specimen which was streaked with dusky; back, fine ight grey. The wings reach to within two inches of the end of the tail, and expand to above three feet—the first quill is shorter than the sixth: all the feathers very soft. Mr. Yarrell quotes in his work an observation which I had recorded some years before in my magazine, the ‘Naturalist,’ as to the fourth quill feather in the female being the longest, and the third in the male. He suggests that in such cases the birds may have been killed in autumn before the ultimate relative length of the feathers has been gained. The question, however, will a puzzling one, why one feather should grow faster than another—‘who shall decide?’ A difficulty is certainly put in the way of founding specific distinctions on the relative length of the quill feathers, as I have already pointed out in the case of the Sparrow-Hawk, and shall have occasion again to do in that of the Snowy Owl. Greater wing coverts, grey; lesser wing coverts, grey, but they seem to be the last part of the plumage that loses the ferruginous tint of the young bird. The first six primaries nearly black, white at the base, and tipped with grey; the others grey on the outer webs, white on the inner, and faintly barred with dark grey: the first feather is very short, and the lightest coloured; the fourth the longest, the third nearly as long, the fifth a little longer than the second, the seventh about the length of the first; secondaries and tertiaries, grey on the outer webs and tips, white on the inner webs; larger HEN HARRIER. 25 and lesser under wing coverts, white. The tail white, except the two middle feathers, which are grey, with sometimes a few markings; the inner webs of the outer ones are barred with eight dark grey or dusky bars; the outer webs grey, without bars generally, but some have them slightly barred with rust- colour: underneath it is greyish white, with traces of five darker bars; upper and under tail coverts, white. Legs, long, feathered, and as the toes, yellow; claws, black. Female; weight, about eighteen ounces; length, one foot eight to one foot nine inches; bill, black; cere, yellow; iris, yellow; the eyes are surrounded with white or pale greyish yellow; bristles, as in the male; forehead, pale greyish yellow. Head, brown, the feathers margined with rufous, forming a faint collar; neck, as the head; the ruff, which is more distinct than in the male, dusky, or reddish, or yellowish white, or white; the shafts of the feathers brown; nape, rufous; chin, white; throat, light rufous, the feathers marked as on the breast. Breast, yellowish white, or pale rufous brown, streaked with orange brown or dusky in the centre of each feather, and the shafts still darker. Back, brown, varied with yellowish or reddish brown. The wings as in the male, except as to the length of the quills, (vide supra)—they expand to from two feet and a half to two feet ten inches. Greater and lesser wing coverts, brown, margined with rufous; primaries, dusky, the outer webs cinereous, barred beneath with white and dark brown; secondaries and tertiaries, dusky, slightly edged with a paler shade; greater and lesser under wing coverts, reddish white, with dark centres to the feathers. Tail, light brown, white at the base, barred on the side feathers with waved bars of darker and lighter brown—six on the middle, and four on the side feathers—the lighter ones shaded to rufous on the inner webs, which appear whitish underneath; the last bar is the widest; the inner webs, excepting those of the two middle feathers, pale reddish grey; the shafts pale brown. In some specimens the outer feather on each side is light, and without bars; the tip of the tail whitish or pale rust- colour; underneath the tail is paler, the middle feathers barred with dusky black and dull white. Tail coverts, white, sometimes with a few brown markings; under tail coverts, as the breast, but lighter and less marked, sometimes spotless. Legs, yellow, feathered in front as in the male, one third down; toes, yellow; claws, black. 126 HEN HARRIER. The young are at first covered with white down—the males are smaller than the females, and lighter coloured. The females, as they advance in age, change the brown for more of grey, and the light for greyish yellow; the bars on the wings shew more distinctly, from the intervals becoming lighter, which also encroach upon them. The males gradually change from brown to grey, commencing the change when about a year old: the former, however, is their bridegroom’s attire. When fully fledged, the bill is blackish brown, yellow at the base; cere, yellow; iris, dark brown; head and _ neck, brown edged with rufous; the ruff the same, but paler at the edges. Breast, brownish red, each feather having a central band of brown; back, rich brown; primaries and secondaries, edged with brownish grey, the dark bands indis- tinct, except on the inner webs. The tail has four bands of dark brown, and four of pale red, the end one of the latter colour fades into white; upper tail coverts, white spotted with brown; legs, yellow; toes, blackish brown. sb SEE phos wey Nes cil Ss Wie PE t rae! “a i he = By wil as MONTAGU'S HARRIER. 127 MONTAGU’S HARRIER. Circus Montagui, YARRELI, alco hyemalis, PENNANT. “ cimeraceus, cinerarius, and cinerareus, MonraGu. Buteo cineraceus, FLEMING. JENYNS. Circus—The Greek name of some species of Hawk. Montagui—Of Montagu. I wave followed Mr. Yarrell in both the Latin and the English denominations of this species, as the previous one has an equal right with it to the descriptive title of ‘ash- coloured.’ The compliment too of the name is_ properly claimed for Montagu, the first to discriminate the two species —huie des nominis hujus honorem.’ Montagu’s Harrier occurs in the southern countries of Europe—in Hungary, Poland, Silesia, Austria, Dalmatia, Illyria, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Germany, and France; in Asia, as far east as India, and in Africa. In America it appears to be unknown. Different views seem to have been taken as to the numbers of this bird among us. Mr. Hewitson’s account seems to me to be the correct one, that ‘though at one time more abundant than has been supposed, it is now becoming rare, and exceedingly difficult to procure.’ It has been mostly met with in the southern and south-western counties: one ~ in my possession, a young bird, was shot on the western borders of Dorsetshire. In Yorkshire various specimens have been obtained, especially, as might readily be imagined by those who know the locality, on Thorne Moor, contiguous to the ‘Level of Hatfield Chase.’ In Sussex, Mr. Knox says that it has been more often met with than the Hen Harrier. It becomes still less frequent towards the north, but appears to be known in Scotland, in Sutherlandshire, where it breeds near Bonar Bridge, and doubtless in other counties also. In 128 MONTAGU’S HARRIER. Ireland it is beheved that one if not more specimens have occurred, but none have been preserved. The flight of this species resembles that of the Hen Harrier; but, Selby says, that it is more rapid and more strikingly buoyant. Its food consists of small birds, such as larks and finches; as also lizards, frogs, and other reptiles, and even the eggs of small birds. Nidification commences in March or April; incubation in May; and the young are hatched in June or July, and moult in August. The nest is built on the ground, generally in some tuft of furze, and is composed of grass, sedge, rushes, or flags. The eggs are usually four or five in number, rarely six; they are white, or white with a cast of light blue, and in some instances spotted with brown. Male; weight, between nine and ten ounces; length, about one foot five or six inches; bill, dusky black, the tip slender and very acute. Cere, dull yellow; iris, yellow; bristles almost hide the cere; head, neck, and nape, light ash-coloured; the ruff is but obscurely visible. Chin, throat, and breast, light ash-coloured on the upper half, white on the lower, the latter streaked down the shafts of the feathers with ferruginous. Back, ash-coloured, rather darker or brownish on the upper part. The wings expand to the width of three feet eight or nine inches, and extend, when closed, beyond the tail. Greater and lesser wing coverts, ash-coloured; primaries, nearly black, greyish at the tips; the third quill is the longest in the wing, being an inch longer than the second, the first is a little longer than the fifth; the first are the darkest, and oradually become lighter; secondaries, ash-coloured, the latter crossed by three dusky black bars, of which only one is visible above when the wings are closed; tertiaries, ash- coloured; larger and lesser under wing coverts, white, barred with light ferruginous. Middle feathers of the tail, ash- colowied: the outer ones white, barred with ferruginous; underneath it is dull white, barred with dusky grey; under tail coverts, as the lower half of the breast. Legs, slender, yellow, and feathered in front about a fourth down; toes, slender and yellow; claws, black. Female; weight, between thirteen and fourteen ounces; length, one foot six to one foot seven inches; bill, nearly black; cere, dull yellow; iris, yellow, over the eye is a streak MONTAGU’S HARRIER. 129 of dull white; bristles as in the male. Crown and back of the head, reddish brown, edged with a lighter shade; neck, brown; nape, brown, edged with yellowish white. Chin and throat, light yellowish rufous; breast, light reddish brown, streaked with a darker shade. Back, dark brown, the feathers margined with ferruginous. Wings, as in the male, in propor- tion; greater and lesser wing coverts, as the back; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, dusky; greater and lesser under wing coverts, brown. ‘Tail, dark brown on the centre feathers, the side ones barred with two shades of reddish brown, except the outer, which are barred with reddish brown and white. Tail coverts, brown, mixed with a little white. Legs and toes, yellow; claws, black. In advanced age the whole plumage becomes lighter. * The young male in the first year has the head and neck ferruginous, each feather streaked with dark brown; chin, throat, and breast, uniform reddish brown. In the young female the breast is without the streaks; back, dark brown, (in my specimen nearly all the feathers are margined with light rufous;) greater and lesser wing coverts, the same, margined with ferruginous; wings underneath, as the breast; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, dull black; both the latter tipped with rufous. Tail, with five bands of dark and four of greyish brown; underneath, dull reddish white, with four or five bands of brownish grey; tail coverts, white tipped with rufous; under tail coverts, as the breast. In the next stage the head is brown and rufous; chin and throat, light grey; breast, white. Greater wing coverts, dark brown; lesser wing coverts, lighter brown, varied with rufous and grey; primaries and secondaries, blackish brown. ‘Tail, except the two middle feathers, barred with brown and rufous; the middle ones have the outer webs light grey; the inner grey, with five dark brown bands; underneath it is barred with greyish white and brown. Under tail coverts, white, with a rufous streak on the centre of each feather. These birds vary extremely in plumage, the males occurring in every stage of gradation from the garb of the female to their own perfect hue; some even vary on different sides. I have seen two in the collection of Mr. Chaffey, of Dodington, Kent, and have heard of another, of a uniform dark colour, almost black. A fourth, a similar variety, is described in the ‘Loologist,’ as having the nape irregularly marked with white. VOL. I. K 130 SHORT-EARED OWL. WOODCOCK OWL. SHORT-HORNED OWL. HAWK OWL. MOUSE HAWK. Strix brachyotos, Montacu. BEwIck. $ ‘S| lula, LATHAM. Otus brachyotos, SELBY. GOULD. Stric—A kind of Owl. Brachyotos. Brachus—Short. Os, (plural ota)—An ear. Tue remark made at the commencement of the next article, applies in a modified degree to the bird whose natural history is at present under consideration. I hope we shall never ourselves be so overwise as to undervalue the tales of our childhood; and, if so, the question ‘what ears you have!’ and the philosophical answer ‘the better to hear with;’ will never be effaced from our recollection. The Short-eared Owl is found in Germany, Holland, most parts of Europe, and North and South America. Unlike the next species, this one avoids the shelter of woods, and makes itself conspicuous in the open country, seeming to prefer moist situations: in the eastern side of the island it is the most numerous, as if it had crossed over from the continent. It is a migratory bird, arriving among us in October, and departing in March; and as five or six are sometimes found roosting together, it is deemed probable that they migrate in flocks, more or less large. On one occasion, in Ireland, thirteen or fourteen were seen together. They breed in Northumberland, and probably other northern counties; in the Orkneys, in Dumfriesshire and other parts of Scotland: several of their nests have been found in Norfolk, and one, it is believed, in Suffolk. They feed by day, especially in dull weather, and may SHORT-HARED OWL. SHORT-EARED OWL. 181 sometimes be seen hawking over turnip fields, as well as in more wild districts, which they naturally prefer. When dis- turbed, they fly but a little way, and then alight again on the ground. If captured they defend themselves with much spirit, as does the Long-eared Owl, but are in some degree tameable; so much so as to take food from the hand. One kept by Montagu never drank during six months. They have been observed to retreat into rabbit- holes, at the entrance of which they had been stationed, after the manner of the Burrowing Owl of America. On occasion, this species exhibits considerable powers of flight, and if teased by the pursuit of a Rook or other bird, easily surmounts it, and sometimes ascends to a great height, where it wheels about in circles. It flies much after the manner of a Sea-gull, and seems but very seldom to perch on trees. Grouse, pigeons, plovers, larks, yellow-hammers, and other small birds, chickens, which it sometimes snaps up even in the day-time from the barn door, rats, mice, reptiles, beetles and other insects, compose the prey of the Short-eared Owl. The legs of a purre were found in the stomach of one, and in another the remains of a bat. ‘Generally speaking,’ says Bishop Stanley, ‘a more useful race of birds does not exist; since, with the exception of one or two of the larger and rarer species, their food consists entirely of vermin and insects, very prejudicial to our crops; and which, but for these nocturnal hunters, might do serious mischief. A striking instance of their utility occurred some years ago in the neighbourhood of Bridgewater, in Somersetshire, where during the summer such incredible numbers of mice overran the country as to destroy a large portion of vegetation; and their ravages might have extended to an alarming degree, had it not been for a sudden assemblage of Owls, which resorted from all parts to prey upon them. Short-eared Owls, to the number of twenty-eight, have been counted in a single field, collected together, no doubt, by swarms of mice which in a favourable season had been bred there.’ The note is said, by Meyer, to be soft and pleasing, and to resemble the words ‘kiou, kiou.’ If alarmed for their young, they utter a shrill cry, and make, as also at other times, a snapping noise with their bills. The motion is so quick in doing this, that it is with difficulty the opening and shutting of the bill can be observed. 132 STIORT-EARED OWT. The nest, which is built on the ground among long grass, heather, rushes, or fern, is composed of moss, hay, or grass, or even formed by a mere hollow in the earth. The young have been found seated on the ground near the nest before they were able to fly. The eggs, which are white, are from three to five in number. The whole plumage of these birds is very soft. Male; weight, about eleven ounces; length, one foot two to one foot three inches; bill, bluish or brownish black, and partly con- cealed by the plumage; cere, the same, the feathers about it also white with black shafts. Inris, yellow, with a tinge of red, surrounded by a ring of brownish black passing into white, and broadest behind; the feathers of the wreath which encircles the face are striped with lght ferruginous and black, the latter predominating near the ears. The head dusky, the feathers edged with light ferruginous. The crown is furnished with two tufts or ‘soi-disant’ ears, but which in this species are not very conspicuous, and are chiefly set up when the bird is asleep or in a quiescent state. Bewick says that if frightened, the tufts are depressed, but the fact is that their then appearance is rather caused by all the feathers of the head being raised, so as nearly to hide the former. The tufts, which are placed near together, are com- posed of three or four feathers not much longer than the other feathers of the head, the longest beimg less than an inch in length; they are dusky on the outer webs and yellowish white on the inner. Neck, nape, chin, and throat, pale buff, with oblong dark brown streaks; breast, pale buff, sometimes darker, streaked with dark brown, wider above and narrower lower down on the shafts of the feathers, which are edged with yellowish. Back, dusky, the feathers edged with light ferruginous. The wings, long and broad, and expand to the width of about three feet, or a little more; underneath they are yellowish white, the dark bars on the inner webs shewing through: they reach about an inch beyond the tail. Greater and lesser wing coverts, mottled with dark dusky and fer- ruginous, some of them spotted with yellowish white; primaries, very broad, yellowish salmon-colour, greyish towards the tips, white at the base of the outer webs: the second is the longest, the third nearly as long, the fourth a little shorter than the first; some of the quills are strongly serrated on SIORT-EARED OWL. 183 the outer edge; the two or three first have one or two dusky bars, the next two or three, and the rest two, three, or four, on the outer webs; and all have one irregular bar, or part of one, on the inner—the bars are only on the outer half of the quills. Secondaries also broad, dusky buff, spotted with dull white, forming irregular bars; tertiaries, dusky buff; larger and lesser under wing coverts, as the wings; underneath, the feathers edged with brown, with a few brown spots. Tail, rather short, buff, with four or five broad bands of dusky brown on the six middle feathers; the two centre ones spotted with dusky on the interstices; the bars on the outer feathers are fewer and imperfect, and the yellow on the outside feathers is shaded off to whitish; those have only two irregular brown bars on the inner webs; the tip yellowish white. Tail coverts, yellowish brown, faintly edged with a darker shade; under tail coverts, white. Legs, feathered, pale buff, short and thick; the third and fourth toes are united at the base by a short web; the first is the shortest, and has an extensive lateral motion, the third is the longest, the second and fourth nearly equal. Toes, the same, the feathers assuming a hairy appearance. Claws, much hooked, blackish grey, the middle one grooved beneath, with a sharp inner edge. Female; length, about one foot four inches ; the breast is rather deeper tinted than in the male, and the streaks broader. The back is rather lighter than in the male. The wings expand to the width of three feet one or two inches. 134 LONG-EARED OWL. LONG-HORNED OWL. Strix otus, Linnzus. LATHAM. Otus vulgaris, FLEMING. SELBY. NStriz—Some species of Owl. Ous, (plural ota)—An ear, As wisdom is certainly both more to be acquired and more to be considered to exist as the consequence of hearing, than of any other of the senses, the ‘ears’ of this species may have been the procuring a cause of the agnomen of the ‘Bird of wisdom’ attaching to its kind. It might, however, possibly be objected to this theory, that if it were correct, the ass should be deemed the wisest of animals. The Long-eared Owl is, plentiful in many countries of all four quarters of the globe. In Europe it occurs in Denmark, Russia, Sweden, Norway, France, Italy, Turkey, and Spain. In this country it is generally distributed, though nowhere numerous. In the fir woods, north-east of York, it is to be commonly thet with. It is also a resident in Ireland and Scotland. This Owl is not only a nocturnal, but occasionally, and and even in bright sunshine, a diurnal feeder: for the most part, however, it keeps quiet by day. It is readily tamed, and affords much amusement by the many grotesque attitudes it assumes, to which its ears and eyes give piquancy. It may often be detected with a small orifice left through which it is peeping when its eyes would seem to be shut; and it has the singular faculty of being able to close one eye while the other is not shut; so that it may appear to be ‘wide awake’ on one side, while apparently asleep on the other, or, if asleep, may be so literally ‘with one eye open.’ The ears are raised by any excitement; at other times they are depressed. If attacked, LONG-EARED OWL. 135 it makes a vigorous defence, throwing itself on its back, striking with its claws, and hissing and snapping with its bill. If provoked only, it merely makes a. querulous noise. A friend of Mr. Thompson’s, of Belfast, kept this and the preceding species instead of cats, and found them more effective as destroyers of rats and mice. They were, he says, ‘very fond of having their ears rubbed,’ The food of this Owl consists of leverets, rabbits, rats, mice, moles, sparrows, snipes, chaffinches, blackbirds, linnets, gold- finches, and other small birds, which it is said to surprise when at roost, as also of beetles and other insects. It seizes its prey with its bill, with which it carries it if not large, but if otherwise transfers it to its foot. Meyer says that the note is described by the word ‘hook.’ Nidification commences early in March. Other birds’ nests, such as crows, magpies, and ringdoves, are generally, if not always, fitted up by the one before us as its domicile, by flattening them and lining them with a few feathers or a little wool. It sometimes even locates itself in that of a squirrel, and is not deterred by its not being far from the ground. ‘Trees give it its ‘locus standi,’ evergreens, such as spruce, Scotch, and other firs, holly, and ivy, seeming to be preferred, especially in large woods. Ivy-covered rocks, and even the ground it also nestles on. It appears to be thought by some that there is a difference of eight or ten days in the laying of each egg, which are severally sat on in the intervals, causing a corresponding difference in the time of the young being hatched. “The Long-horned Owl,’ says Mudie, ‘generally takes possession of the deserted nest of some other bird, such as one of the crow tribe, which nestle earlier, and thus have their brood out of the nest by the time that the Owl lays.’ The Long-eared Owl, be it remembered, lays in March, and though I think that Mr. Macgillivray is rather too severe upon Mudie, whose work is actually described by Mr. Neville Wood, as one of ‘the two best which have yet appeared!’ yet I cannot forbear asking here ‘at what time does Rook-shooting commence?’ If the young Rooks have fled before March, they must have had but a cold berth of it in February! Such an imagination as this reminds me of a somewhat corresponding mistake developed in an illustrated London paper. ‘Our own correspondent,’ ‘on the spot’? I suppose, was describing the circumstance of Her Majesty’s witnessing the process of ‘shearing’ in the Highlands 136 LONG-EARED OWL. of Scotland, and a veritable engraving duly chronicled the barbarous despoiling of sheep of their fleeces in the month of October; and in that part of the Kingdom too! The writer was not aware that the term ‘shearmg’ applied in the north of England to corn, as well as to sheep, and had as little thought for the unfortunate animals, as Mudie for the wretched Rooks. The eggs, which are of a round shape, and white, are generally two in number, but sometimes three or four, and some writers say five, are laid about the end of March or the beginning of April, by the latter end of which the young are hatched. ‘For the first month,’ says Mr. Selby, ‘they take up their abode in some adjoining tree; and for many subsequent days, indeed for weeks, may be heard after sunset uttering a plaintive eall for food, during which time the parent birds are diligently employed in hawking for prey.’ These birds vary considerably in the depth and tone of their markings. Male; weight, nine or ten ounces; length, from one foot two to one foot three inches; bill, dull black—a streak of dark brown extends from it to the eye. Cere, flesh-coloured, hid by the feathers of the wreath, which are light brown on each outer side, with a half-circular boundary line of darker brown; on the inner side, dusky at the base, and white towards the tips. Iris, orange yellow, the radiated circle round the eye is cream-colour, faintly tinged with orange; the bristly feathers between the eyes and the bill are black at the base and white at the tips, the shafts black. Head, yellowish brown, mottled with darker and white. The tufts, which are formed of from seven or eight to twelve feathers, an inch and a half or more in length, are brownish black in the middle, and edged with white, light, or rufous, or yellowish brown—the hind ones are the shortest; the face is ferruginous, speckled with black and rufous, and surrounded in one of my specimens with part of a circle of white on the lower side. Neck and nape, light yellowish brown, much speckled and streaked with brownish black, dusky, ash grey, rufous, or white—the whole elegantly blended. Chin, throat, and breast, dark greyish white or cream- coloured, mixed with light or rufous brown, and streaked with dark brown, the shafts black; back, as the neck. The wings, when closed, reach a little beyond the end of the tail, and expand to the width of three feet, and from that to three feet two inches. Greater and lesser wing coverts, as the neck; primaries, light brown or salmon-colour, barred LONG-EARED OWL. ior and mottled towards their base with darker, tawny, or brown, and clouded with reddish grey, and brown at the tips: the second feather is the longest, the first and fourth equal, the third about half an inch shorter. Secondaries and tertiaries, barred more finely with tawny and dull black, and mottled; larger and lesser under wing coverts, light brownish yellow, with a spot of black at the base of the primaries. Tail, barred and speckled irregularly on the middle feathers, and decidedly on the outer with dusky and cinereous brown, yellowish or reddish orange, or dull white. It is square m shape, rather short, and composed of twelve broad rounded feathers; under- neath greyish white, crossed with narrow bars of dusky brown. Under tail coverts, light brown, verging to white; legs, feathered with light brown or buff feathers. Toes, the same, except the ends of the two front ones, the third and fourth connected ai the base by a short web; the first 1s capable of extended side- motion, the third is the longest, the second and fourth nearly equal. Claws, dull black, inclining to pink at the base, they are rather long, much curved, and sharp. Female; length, one foot two to one foot four inches; the wreath is lighter, and the back has more greyish white than in the male: the older the birds the more grey. The wings expand to the width of from three feet two to three feet four inches. The young are at first covered with white down, which next turns to yellowish, with which brown becomes gradually interspersed. At first the bars on the wings and tail are more distinct, and the streaks broader and darker, as indeed is the whole plumage than in the adult birds. 138 EAGLE OWL. GREAT OWL. GREAT-EARED OWL. GREAT-HORNED OWL. Strix Bubo, Linnzus. Montagu. Bubo maximus, SELBY. GOULD. Striz—Some kind of Owl. RBubo—The Latin name of some kind of Owl. ‘Wat eyes he has!’ in the words of the worthy gentleman recorded in Mr. Scropes’ ‘Days and nights of salmon fishing,’ who trolled for a day in the vain attempt to catch a wooden pike stuck at the bottom of a pond; and who declared to the host, who inquired if he had caught it for dinner, that though he had not succeeded in doing so yet, that it had ‘run at him several times!’ The Eagle Owl, as may be inferred from its name, has much of the character and appearance of the former bird— the Owl in fact is merged in the Eagle. The stronghold of this fine bird appears to be the north of Europe, but it also occurs in many of the Pennine ranges of the south. It inhabits Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Lapland, Germany, Switzerland, Astrachan, Turkey, Hungary, France, and Spain. It also occurs in China, and other parts of Asia; Meyer says that it is found in Africa, and in North and South America; but though Wilson seems to take it for granted that Pennant was right in considering the Virginian Horned Owl of the latter continent only a variety of the species before us; yet if that is the one meant by Meyer, I think it is distinct, judging from Wilson’s own description. In Yorkshire, a specimen of this bird was shot in the month of March, 1845, in the woods of Clifton Castle, near Bedale, one of the most beautifully-situated residences in the kingdom, the seat of Timothy Hutton, Esq., late High-Sheriff; another KAGLE OWL. Tyla one , *. . ‘ . } ' . - — ‘ ' et "i - a — : ¥ « “42 “e a , ae - i y we her ~ . . aa c EAGLE OWL. 189 at Horton, near Bradford, about the year 1824; and a third was caught in a wood near Harrogate, in the summer of 1832. One was taken in the year 1848, as I am informed by the Rev. R. P. Alington, in the parish of Staimton Le Vale, Lincolnshire. Others have been met with in Kent, Sussex, Devonshire, Suffolk, and Durham; several near Mel- bourne, in Derbyshire; one at Shardlow, in 1828; one at Hampstead, near London, on the 8rd. of November, 1845, which had been previously wounded in the wing. In Iveland, four specimens visited the county of Donegal, after a great snow-storm from the north-east. In the Orkney Islands it is considered to be a permanent resident. ‘Owls have been noticed,’ says Bishop Stanley, ‘for an ex- traordinary attachment to their young; whether, however, it exceeds that of other birds or animals may be very difficult to say, but they will certainly visit and feed them long after they have been separated from the nest. Some young Owls which had been so far tamed as to take food from the hand, were observed to lose all their familiarity on being hung out during the night, in consequence of renewed visits from the supposed parent birds, who fed them with as much care and attention as if they had been with them without interruption. Another instance in point was witnessed by a Swedish gentleman, who resided several years on a farm near a steep mountain, on the summit of which two Eagle Owls had built their nest. One day in the month of July, a young bird having quitted the nest was caught by the servants. This bird was, considering the season of the year, well feathered, but the down appeared here and there between those feathers which had not yet attained their full growth. After it was caught it was shut up in a large hen-coop, when to his surprise, on the following morning, a fine young partridge was found lying dead before the door of the coop. it was immediately concluded that this provision had been brought there by the old Owls, which no doubt had been making search in the night-time for their lost young one; and such was indeed the fact, for night after night, for four- teen days, was this same mark of attention repeated. The game which the old ones carried to it consisted chiefly of young partridges; for the most part newly killed, but some- times a little spoiled. It was supposed that the spoiled flesh had already been some time in the nest of the old Owls, and that they had brought it merely because they had no better 140 EAGLE OWL. provision at the time. The gentleman and his servant watched several nights in order that they might observe, through a window, when and how this supply was brought, but in vain; for it appeared that the Owls, which are very quick-sighted, had discovered the moment when the window was not watched, as food was found to be placed before the coop on these very nights. In the month of August, the attention on the part of the old birds ceased; but it should be observed that this was about the usual period when all birds of prey abandon their young to their own exertions, and usually drive them off to shift for themselves in distant haunts. It may be readily concluded, from this instance, how much game must be destroyed by a pair of these large Owls, during the time they rear their young.’ . The Eagle Owl is easily reconciled to confinement; and in two instances has been known to breed in captivity. A pair of these birds, in the possession of Mr. Edward Fountaine, of Easton, near Norwich, formed a nest of straw in the corner of their cage: the first egg was laid on the 18th. of April, 1849; and two others about a week afterwards. Two young birds were hatched on the 19th. of May, and the third on the 22nd. Another which was kept in the Zoological Gardens, has also been known to lay an egg. In defence of this, it exhibited the most determined spirit; hissing and snapping with its bill, and ruffling all its feathers. In moving on the ground, the action of this bird is by a series of jumps, aided by the wings: it does not walk. The food of the Eagle Owl consists of even the larger animals, such as fawns and lambs; hares, rabbits, rats, mice, and moles; birds—capercali, pheasants, grouse, partridges, crows, rooks; as also snakes, lizards, frogs; and even insects and fish; all indeed seems to be fish that comes to its net. It pounces at its prey on the ground, and is said to destroy life with its claws alone. The smaller prey are swallowed whole, the larger are torn in pieces. ‘From its lonely retreat in some deep forest glen, says Linneus Martin, ‘some rift among hoary rocks, where it reposes in silence during the day, this winged marauder issues forth at night, intent upon its victims; its harsh dismal voice resounding at intervals through the gloomy solitude of a wild and savage scene.’ The note resembles the bark of a small dog, varied some- times into a ‘hoot,’ or ‘hoo,’ or ‘poo-hoo,’ accompanied by a snapping of the bill, and hissing. The female has in addition EAGLE OWL. 141 a screech in the breeding season. The young utter a continual hissing and piping noise. Nidification commences the latter end of March—only one brood is produced in the year. The female sits about five weeks. Incubation begins in April, and the young are hatched in May. The nest is very large, and is placed on rocks or old ruins, amid the desolate sterility of the bleak hill, or the wild unsheltered mountain. It is composed of branches and sticks, and is lined with leaves and straw. Occasionally a hollow in the bare earth answers the purpose. The same eyrie is frequently resorted to year after year. The eggs are two or three in number, white or bluish white, and, like those of all the Owls, of a rotund form, and, as described by Meyer, of a rough chalky appearance. Male; weight, about seven pounds; length, from about two feet to two feet two inches; bill, dull black, tinged with greyish blue, and paler at the base: it is nearly hid at the base by the feathers. Cere, dusky, concealed by the feathers; iris, bright orange, it is fringed around the margin with short bristly feathers. The feathers of the head are mottled, reddish brown or yellow, streaked and spotted, especially down the middle, with multitudinous dark brown specks and spots: the centre of each feather is dark, which widens at the tips, and is shaded off and mottled at the sides. ‘The tufts are formed of from seven or eight to twelve dark feathers, barred with light brown on the inner webs. They are about two inches and a half in length beyond the surface of the rest of the plumage. The face light brown, speckled with greyish black and white beneath; the ruff is indistinct and incomplete, extending only from a little above the ear to the chin. Neck, as the head, but more tinged with red, and some of the feathers only spotted; nape, the same; chin, white, a band of mottled and barred feathers—a continuation of the ruff, between it and the throat, which is also white, spotted with black. Breast, — above, light brown, ferruginous yellow, and greyish, streaked with dark brown on the lower part, and towards the sides irregularly and numerously barred on each feather with the same, the shafts being black; back, as the head. The wings are very large, broad and rounded; they expand to the width of about five feet one inch; underneath they are greyish yellow, barred and dotted with dusky brown: greater and lesser wing coverts, as the back. Primaries, as the head, but barred transversely with brownish black, the 142 EAGLE OWL. intervals yellowish red margined with yellowish brown; the outer webs spotted and waved with brown, the inner nearly plain; the tips dark brown mingled with grey; the third is the longest, the fourth nearly as long, the first an inch and a half shorter than the second. Secondaries, tertiaries, and larger and lesser under wing coverts, much barred indistinctly with dark brown, and the shafts dark. ‘Tail, as the primaries, but lighter, the bars on the inner webs being narrower; underneath it is barred still more narrowly, and with a still lighter shade: it consists of twelve broad rounded feathers. Tail coverts, as the back; under tail coverts, as the lower part of the breast; legs, feathered and the same; toes, the same; claws, long, much eurved, and in colour as the bill. The female is a little larger and darker plumaged than the male. Weight, between seven and eight pounds; length, about two feet four inches; bill, bluish grey at the base, blackish grey at the tip; chin, white; throat, white; claws, as the bill. The young are at first covered with white down, which at about the end of a month becomes brownish grey, and in another week or two the feathers begin to shew themselves. The bill is black; iris, yellow; the breast becomes rusty red, striped with dusky. Wings, dark, with reddish brown spots; tail, dark, with round red spots; legs and toes, reddish brown. OWL. COPS-EA RED 2 143 SCOPS-EARED OWL. LITTLE-HORNED OWL. Scops Aldrovandi, FLEMING. SELBY. Strix Scops, Linnzus. Monracu. “=. gorca, LATHAM. “« Gi, LATHAM, Bubo Scops, JENYNS, Scops—The Greek name of some kind of Owl. Aldrovandi—Of Aldrovandus. Tuts little Owl is a native of the temperate parts of each of the four quarters of the globe. In Europe, it occurs plentifully in France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and other countries. In Holland it is rare. In Yorkshire, a specimen of this kind was recorded by J. S. Foljambe, Esq., to have formerly occurred. Another was shot near Wetherby, in the spring of 1805; another near York; one near Driffield, in 1839; and one at Boynton, Sir George Strickland’s, near Bridlington, in July, 1832; one at Bossal, then the residence of Captain Beaumont, near York; one near Eshton Hall; and four, two old birds and two young ones, at Ripley, Sir William Ingleby’s, which were for a fortnight nailed up to a house. Another is said to have been shot at Womersley, one of the seats of Lord Hawke; one in Sussex, at Shillinglee, the seat of Lord Winterton; one near Brill, in Buckinghamshire, in 1833; one in the Island of Tresco, one of the Scilly Islands, in April, 1847. Another was caught near London; and one in Worcestershire, near Fladbury; and two were shot near Audley End, in Essex, the seat of Lord Braybrooke. It is said to have bred in Castle Eden Dene, in the county of Durham, and does so near the River Oykel, in Sutherlandshire. 144 SCOPS-EARED OWL. In Ireland, two specimens have been obtained, one in the month of July, at Loughcrew, in the county of Meath, the seat of J. W. Lennox Naper, Esq.; and another in April, 1847, near Kilmore, in the county of Wexford. This species inhabits gardens and plantations even in the neighbourhood of towns. During the day-time they lie ‘perdu’ in the holes of trees, or leafy recesses, from whence they emerge in the evening to seek their prey. If taken young from the nest they are easily tamed. Their flight, according to Meyer, is soft and wavering, but tolerably quick. Their food consists of mice, frogs, small birds, grasshoppers, cockchaffers, moths, and other insects, and worms: with the latter kinds the young birds are fed. The note, which is very loud, and resembles the words ‘kew, kew,’ is said to be uttered ‘as regular as the ticking of a pendulum,’ at intervals of about half a minute. The nest is generally placed in the hole of a tree or a rock, as also in heather. Selby says that it constructs no nest. The eggs are white, and from two to four or five, or, ac- cording to Selby, as many as six in number. These birds vary much in colour, from dark brown of various shades to grey. Male; length, about seven inches and a half; bill, dusky, black at the tip; iris, yellow; the tufts on the head are short and indistinct; the feathers, which are six or eight, to twelve in number, are dark in the centre; the ruff, which is also inconspicuous, is yellowish white at the base, and tipped with black; the face, grey, delicately pencilled with brown. Crown, streaked with dark brown on a pale brown ground, forming a central band between the tufts; breast, dull yellow and grey, mottled with brown in the most beautiful manner; some of the feathers with square- shaped dusky spots, and waved with narrow lines of the same. Back, rufous brown and grey; the former the pre- dominating colour; the whole streaked, barred, and mottled with black. The wings extend a little beyond the end of the tail, and expand to the width of about one foot eight or nine inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, as the back, with a conspicuous mark of yellowish white, the feathers edged and tipped with dark brown; primaries, barred with yellowish, or greyish, or SCOPS-EARED OWL. 145 rufous white and brown on the inner webs; and on the outer webs with alternate bars of white and speckled brown, the former shaded at the edges with the latter. The third is the longest, the second nearly as long, the fourth the next, the first intermediate between the fifth and the sixth. The secondaries have an oval spot of white on the outer webs, which together form an interrupted bar across; tail, slightly rounded, and barred alternately with a lighter and a darker mottled space, and one of yellowish or reddish white; under- neath it is, as are the under tail coverts, greyish white, mottled and barred with brown. The legs, which are feathered, are dark yellowish or rufous white, streaked and speckled with brown on the centre of the feathers; (Mudie says that they are bare of feathers, from which fact he supposed that this species belongs to warmer climes;) toes, bluish yellow, not feathered, but covered with scales: the outer one is capable of being turned backwards; claws, horn-colour. The female does not differ much in plumage from the male; length, eight inches and a half. The young are said to be at first grey, and the iris light yellew. VOL. ¥ L 146 SNOWY OWL. Stria’ nycétea, Montasu. Brwick. Surnia nyctea, SELBY. GouuD. Noctua nyctea, JENYNS. Strir—Some species of Owl. Nyctea—An. adjective from MWiz—Snow. THE Snowy Owl may derive its name either from the snow- white colour of its plumage when fully adult, or from the snow-covered regions which are its natural residence. It inhabits the arctic parts of Hurope, Asia, and America; from these is sometimes advances more or less far towards the south, but the farther the seldcmer. In Europe it occurs in abundance in Kamtschatka and Siberia; in considerable numbers in Russia, Lapland, Norway, and Sweden; as also in Iceland and Greenland; occasionally in Prussia, Poland, Germany, and’ Switzerland; and once appeared in Holland, in the winter of 1802. This splendid Owl has been one of the ‘oldest inhabitants’ of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and specimens have been procured there; but like that well-known character it is now fast becoming apochryphal. Beauty in Owls, as well as in human beings is a dangerous possession, and often entails damage and destruction. One was killed on the Isle of Unst, in ‘the month of August or sau. 1812: old birds anil young together, have been regularly seen in that island, and also on Yell, in which they have been accustomed to breed. One in Orkne , which had been driven there in a storm from the north-west, ab the end of Mareh, in 1835. In Yorkshire one was shot near Selby, on the 13th. of Feb- ruary, 1837; and another was seen in company with it at the same time. Ancther was shot at Elsdon, in Northumber- land, in December, 1822; and two near Rothbury, in the same county, at the end of January, 1823, during a severe - “dy , ae | | SNOWY OWL. 147 snow-storm; one in Norfolk, in 1814, and one in 1820; » third at Beeston, near Cromer, on the 22nd. of January, and a fourth at St. Faith’s, about the end of February, 1850. A fifth had been seen at Swannington, the middle of the preceding year; one was killed at Frinsted, in Kent, in 1844; one at Langton, near Blandford, in Dorsetshire; and one, as I am informed by Mr. R. A. Julian, Junior, was knocked down with a stick by a boatman, on the bank of the River Tamar, near St. Germans, in Cornwall, in December, 1838. One at St. Andrews, in Suffolk, on the 19th. of Feb- ruary, 1847. ‘It was shot from the stump of a pollard elm, whence it had been seen to dart down into the field, and then to return to its perch.’ It had previously been seen, for there is no reasonable doubt but that it was the same bird, at Brooke, in the county of Norfolk. One was seen near Melbourne, in Derbyshire, on the 20th. of May, 1841; and one obtained near Caithness, in January, 1850, in stormy snowy weather. It was shot with a duck in its talons, which it had carried off from a sportsman by whom the latter had just been killed, and who had previously fired without success to endeavour to make it drop it. In Sutherlandshire these birds are not very unfrequently driven on the north and north-east coasts, after gales from that quarter. In Ireland specimens have occurred in the years 1812 and 1827: also in 1835, about the 20th. of March, one was shot near Portglenone, in the county of Antrim; on the 21st. another was seen in the same neighbourhood. One was shot in the county of Mayo, also in the month of March; and another in the month of April, in the county of Longford, where another had been procured about the year 1835; one on the 2nd. of December, 1837, on the Scrabo Mountain, in Downshire; and one near JGllibegs, in the county of Donegal, in November or December, 1887. Large flights of these birds were observed on the coast of Labrador, in the month of November, 1838, on their migra- tion. They accompanied the ship for fourteen days, and frequently alighted on the yards. Four were captured and brought to Belfast by the captain. They have been similarly observed in two different years on the coast.of Newfoundland; each time in the month of September. They hunt their prey by day, occasionally all day long, and even in the brightest sunshine, on which account I can- not think that their being seen sometimes perched under the 148 SNOWY OWL. shelter of projecting stones, can be, as some have thought, for the purpose of avoiding a strong glare of light: they seem to have no dread of a ‘coup de soleil.’ Though the frozen regions are the home of these birds, they appear to be able to bear heat without inconvenience. They are of a shy nature, but will sometimes approach a sportsman, in antici- pation of his furnishing them with food, and are not deterred even by the sound of the gun, but rather seem to consider it as a dinner bell, whose summons calls them to a meal. They frequent open snow-covered districts, and also mountains and wooded ones, and perch upon a stone or other eminence, from whence they can keep a look-out. Their similarity of colour to the snow may possibly give then some advantage, as the rifle green to the rifle brigade, at least so it has been suggested. If put up they fly a little way, and then, generally, light again. They are said, when fat, to be good eating. When they begin to prowl about, they are followed, like the Hawks, by Rooks and other birds. Instances are reported to have occurred when they have been surprised asleep, and caught napping. When taken young they may be partially tamed. In flight these birds are very active, resembling in this respect the Hawks more than the Owls, though the airy lightness of the latter on the wing is by no means lost. Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, has well remarked that rare birds that are met with wandering about the country, are, for the most part, young ones, and the reason doubtless is that touched upon by me in treating of the Kestrel—the parent birds retain possession of their own native haunts—the young are compelled to rove. The food of this species consists of hares, rabbits, rats, lemmings, squirrels, and other animals; as also of capercali, ptarmigans, ducks, partridges, sandpipers, and any others of the smaller birds. Mr. Mudie’s theory is that the hares and ptarmigans would be destroyed by famine and cold in the winter, if they were not devoured by the Snowy Owls, so that it would appear that they have to feel indebted to the latter for putting them out of the way of future misery. They prowl for prey near the ground, and strike with their feet. They are said in case of necessity to feed on carrion. Small prey such as young rabbits, and small birds, they occasionally at all events swallow whole. They also feed on fish, which they dexterously skim from the surface of the water, or sometimes SNOWY OWT. 149 like cther fisherrnen, watch for from the brink of a stream. Their mode, however, of angling, is in this case, as described by Audubon, a very peculiar one: they approach the brink of a rock, lay down flat upon it close to the water, and when a fish comes within reach, strike at if with their +alone and secure it with this natural kind of gaff. The note is said sometimes to resemble the ery of a person in danger, bus ordinarily it seems to resemble that of the Cuckoo, but is shorter and quicker. They also hiss and futt like a cat, and make a snapping noise with their bills, and sometimes croak like a frog. The nest is made on the ground, or upon rocks, though sometimes, it is said, in trees, and is composed of branches. The eggs are white, but by Veillot said to be spotted with black, and two, three, or four in number, of which only two are thought to be in general hatched. Male; “weight, about three pounds or a little over; length, from one foot ten or eleven inches to two feet; bill, black; iris, bright yellow; bristly white feathers fs hide the bill. The ruff round the head is scarcely apparent; it and the crewr, neck, nape, chin, throat, breast, and back, are white in the fuliy aduit bird, but spotted in less mature specimens as in the female, but the spots are not so dark. The wings extend to rather more than two thirds the length of the tail, and expand to about four feet nine inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, white. Primaries also white: the first is some- times longer than the fifth, but often shorter; the second and fourth are nearly equal, and a little shorter than the third, which is the “longest. Secondaries, tertiaries, larger and lesser under wing coverts, all white; tail, wedge-shaped; tail coverts, white. Legs, rough and completely covered with long hairy feathers, which almost conceal the claws; the toes are also covered by the plumage. Claws, black, very long, and much curved, the inner and middle onee grooved, the others round. The female dces not often attain to the perfectly white plumege; the spots are at the end of each feather, and of a crescent shape on the breast, and more elongated on the back. Weight, above three pounds; length, from two feet one or two, to two feet three inches; bill, black; iris, bright yellow; bristles as in the male. Head on the crown, thickly studded with round black spots; neck and nape, spotted with dark brown; chin, throat, and breast, white, spotted more or 150 SNOWY OWL. less with brown, and the sides somewhat barred; back, as the neck. The wings expand to the width of five feet two inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, as the back; primaries, white; barred with dark brown bars, two inches apart; secondaries and tertiaries, white, spotted with dark brown; larger and lesser under wing coverts, as the breast. Tail, white, banded with bars of broad brown spots; tail coverts, as the back. Legs and toes as in the male, but with a few spots; claws, black. The young are at first covered with brown down, and have their first feathers also ight brown. Their next plumage is similar to that of the female, only that they are much more spotted all over: in fact the abundance of spots is a sign of youth, as their absence is of age. + ae e) ie i hs Ser veromed sf ys : ' \ rr) wan” ‘i \ eek ‘yal TAWNY OWL, 151 TAWNY “OWE. BROWN OWL. Ulula stridula, SELBY. Strix stridula, Linnaus, FLEMING. “ ~~ aluco, LATHAM, Syrnium aluco, JENYNS. TEMMINCK. Ulula. Ululare—To howl like a wolf. Stridula— Harsh—grating—creaking. Herz is another victim of persecution! Were it not for the friendly shelter of the night, and the fostering care of some few friends, where is the Brown Owl that would be able to maintain a place among the ‘feathered tribes’ of England? Their ‘passports’ are invariably sent to them in the form of cartridge paper; a double-barrelled gun furnishes a ready ‘missive;’ their ‘congé’ is given with a general ‘discharge,’ and the unoffending, harmless, nay, useful bird is ordered for ever to ‘quit.’ His family are not permitted to hold their own, but are themselves outlawed and proscribed; their dwelling is confiscated, a ‘clearance’ is effected; and if there be a wife and children, ‘alack for woe!’ They are carried into captivity. You have my pity, at all events, poor Brown Owl; and, believe me, I would that the expression of it might do you a kindness; but I have sad misgivings—you are a marked bird—they have given you a bad name, and the proverb tells you the fatal consequence. The Tawny Owl, or Brown Owl, is known in many countries of Hurope—Lapland, Scandinavia, Russia, Spain, Italy, and others; as also in Asia Minor and Japan. It is a common species in England, but is more rare in Scotland, especially in the northern parts, and the Orkney Islands: two have been met with in the Queen’s County, in Ireland. Wooded districts are its resort, and from these it only issues, voluntarily, at 152 TAWNY OWL. night, which, as with our antipodes, is its day. In the winter, when the trees ordinarily no longer afford it a covert, it: secretes itself in old buildings, or the hollows of trees, or in evergreens, such as firs and holly, and in ivy. If disturbed during the day-time, and frightened from its retreat, it flies about in a bewildered manner, the light doubtless being unnatural and uncongenial to it. It may easily, in this state, be overtaken and knocked down with sticks and stones. The twilight of morning and evening is the time to see it enjoying its fitful flight. The following anecdote of a bird of this species is related by Mr. Couch, in his ‘Illustrations of Instinct.’ ‘A Brown Owl had lone been in the occupation of a convenient hole in a_ hollow “tree; and in it for several years had rejoiced over its progeny, with hope of the pleasure to be enjoyed in excursions of hunting in their company; but through the persecutions of some persons on the farm, who had watched the bird’s proceedings, this hope had been repeatedly disappointed by the plunder of the nest, at the time when the young oncs were ready for flight. On the last occasion, an individual was ascending their retreat, to repeat the robbery, when the parent bird, aware of the danger, grasped her only young one in her claws, and bore it away, and never more was the nest placed in the same situation.’ These birds are easily tamed, and become quite domestic. ‘They are at first,’ says Montagu, ‘very shy, but soon become tame if fed by hand. If put out of doors within hearing of the parent birds, they retain their native shyness, as the old ones visit them at night, and supply them with ample provision.’ Even if taken in the mature state they may be tamed without difficulty. They have never been known to drink. The flight of the Brown Owl is rather heavy and rie particularly at its first entering on the wing. The food of this species consists of leverets, young rabbits, moles, rats, mice, and other small quadrupeds; birds of various kinds; frogs, beetles, and other insects, worms, and even fish. The note resembles the syllables ‘hoo-hoo-hoo,’ and it also occasionally utters a harsh scream. I may here observe, in reference to the generic name prefixed to this species, that the name of the Owl is probably a corruption of the word ‘howl.’ Meyer describes the note as resembling a satirical laugh. TAWNY OWL. 153 Nidification commences in March. The nest, if 1t deserves the name, is formed of a few soft feathers, a few straws, or a little moss, sometimes merely of the decayed wood in the hollow of a tree in which it is placed; and has once been observed so low down that a person could see into it from the ground; occasionally it is built in rocks, sometimes, it is said, in barns or the like buildings, or even in the deserted nests of other birds, such as buzzards, crows, and magpies. The young are hatched in April: they continue to perch among the branches of trees in the neighbourhood of the nest before finally taking their leave of it, and are fed during this interval by the parent birds. The eggs are white, and from two or three to four or five in number: the first is sat on as soon as laid, and the young are hatched in about three weeks: they are blind for some days, and their red eyelids look as if inflamed. The ground colour of these birds varies very much; scarcely two individuals are met with precisely similar in their markings. Male; weight, between fifteen and sixteen ounces; length, one foot one to one foot three inches; bill, pale horn-colour, much hid by bristles; cere, flesh-coloured; iris, dark brown, nearly black, two irregular white stripes extend backwards over the eye. Head, large; crown, dark brown and grey, tinged with rufous; the bristly feathers of the face are greyish white, interspersed with black near the bill; the small rounded feathers of the wreath are black in the middle, edged, spotted, and barred with white and rufous; the grey prevails near the eyes, and brown near the ears; neck, dingy white, the feathers streaked with rufous brown, the shafts dusky, and zigzag lines or spots at the tips. The feathers of the nape are dark brown in the centre, edged with brownish grey, spotted with brown, and tinged with rufous; chin, brownish grey; throat and_ breast, as the neck, the lines on the lower part of the latter are indistinctly crossed; back, as the nape. The wings expand to the width of from two feet eight inches to three feet: they do not reach to the middle of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, as the back, but more spotted with brown in waving lines, and with some white spots on the greater, forming obscure patches; primaries, rufous yellow barred with dusky, white at the base; the fourth the longest in the wing, the fifth almost as long; underneath they are dull white, barred with pale brown; secondaries, the same, but the bars are narrower and more distinct: tertiaries as the 154 TAWNY OWL. back. Greater and lesser under wing coverts, dull white, barred with pale brown; tail, pale rufous grey speckled with dark brown, and barred, but faintly, on the outer webs with the same: the two middle feathers are nearly plain, and rufous; the tip white; underneath it is dull white, barred with pale brown; tail coverts, as the back; under tail coverts, dull white barred with rufous brown, the shafts of the feathers brown; legs, almost entirely covered with yellowish white or grey feathers, spotted with brown; toes, dark yellow or flesh-coloured, and rough; claws, horn-coloured, with black tips, and not very much hooked. The female chiefiy differs in size, and is less tawny, so that it was formerly thought to be a different species. Weight, nineteen ounces; length, one foot three to one foot five inches. The wings expand to the width of three feet, and upwards. The young are at first covered with grey down. ‘The young female assumes a rufous tinge, the tail is scarcely barred, and the bars on the wings are narrower than in the adult birds. The young male resembles the female for the first two years. A variety with the parts light ash grey, which are usually brown, was met with in 1848, at Pensax, near Worcester. It had previcusly been remarked in the nest. 155 WHITE OWL. YELLOW OWL. BARN OWL. SCREECH OWL. GILLI-HOWLET. HOWLET. MADGE OWL. CHURCH OWL. HISSING OWL. DYLLUAN WEN, OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH. Strix flammea, PENNANT. Monracu. Aluco flammeus, FLEMING. ‘6 minor, ALDROVANDUS, Strix—Some species of Owl. Flammea—Of the colour of fire—yellow. Turs bird, a ‘high churchman,’ is almost proverbially attached to the church, within whose sacred precincts it finds a sanctuary, as others have done in former ages, and in whose ‘ivy-mantled tower’ it securely rears its brood. The very last specimen but one that I have seen was a young bird perched on the exact centre of the ‘reredos’ in Charing Church, Kent, where its ancestors for many generations have been preserved by the careful protection of the worthy curate, the Rev. J. Dix, against the machinations of mischievous boys, and the ‘organ’ of destructiveness of those who ought to know better. The White Owl is dispersed more or less generally, according to naturalists, all over the earth: it is however the least numerous in the colder districts. Northward it occurs as far as Denmark, and Sweden to the south, but is as yet unrecorded as an inhabitant of Norway. Its range extends southward to the Cape of Good Hope; eastward to India and New Holland, as is said; and westward, if indeed the species be the same, to the United States. Madeira is one of its habitats: in Tartary it is said to be very abundant. It occurs throughout England, and that as the most plentiful of its tribe; in Ireland 156 WHITE OWL. it is likewise the most common of the Owls; in Scotland it is less numerous, particularly towards the north-west; and in the Orkney Islands still more unfrequent. This bird is a perennial resident with us, and if unmolested frequents the same haunts for a succession of years. It displays considerable affection for its young. Mr. Thomas Prater, of Bicester, relates in the ‘Zoologist,’ that an old ivy-clad tree having been blown down at Chesterton, Oxfordshire, a family of White Owls was dislodged by its fall: the parent bird placed the young ones under the tree, and was not deterred from her maternal duties by the frequent visits of the keeper on his rounds; but one morning as he was turning away from looking at ean flew at him with great fury, and “buffeted him about the head. As a proof, among the many others which have been, and might be given, of the influence of protection and kinduese upon wild “birds; I may here mention, my informant being Mr. Charles Muskett, of Norwich, that a pair of this species, which lived in a barn near his father’s residence, were so fearless that they would remain there while the men were thrashing, and if a mouse was dislodged by a sheaf being removed, would pounce down upon it before them, without minding their presence. They not very unfrequently become of their own accord halt: domesticated, from frequenting the vicinage of man without molestation, where their good services are appreciated, and their presence accordingly encouraged. ‘These birds indeed are very tameable, and will afterwards live in harmony with other birds of various species. Montagu kept one together with a Sparrow- Hawk and a Ringdove; at the end of six. months he gave them all their liberty—the Owl alone returned—the others preferred their native freedom to the acquired habits of domestication. Another which escaped from the place of its captivity, returned in a few days voluntarily to it. The movements of this bird, when they can be closely observed, are very amusing; standing on one leg, it draws the other up into its thick plumage; and if approached, moves its head awry after the manner of a Chinese mandarin; or falls flat on iis side, like Punch in the puppet-show. To be properly tamed they must be taken young; education, as is the case with the ‘bipes implume,’ 1s much less difficult then than afterwards. They will come to a whistle, or answer to their name, and settle on the shoulder of whomsoever they may be acquainted with. They take notice of music, and appear to be fond of it. WHITE OWL. 157 One of these birds after having heen tamed fer some time, was found to be in the habit for some months, of taking part of its food to a wild one, which overcame its shyness so far as to come neer tne house, and it would then return to the kitchen and eat the remainder of its portion. Another of them is described by Meyer, as so tame ‘that 16 would enter the dcor or window of the cottage, as soon as the family cat down to supper, and partake of the meal, either sitting upon the back of a chair, or venturing on the table; and it was sometimes seen for hours before the time, watching anxiously for the entrance of the expected feast. This exhibition was seen regularly every night.’ If captured when grown up, it sometimes refuses food, and its liberty m such, indeed in an ease, should be given it. In cold weather a number of these birds have been found sitting close together for the purpose of keeping each other warm. The male and female consort together throughout the year. If aroused from their resting- plaee during the day, they fly about in a languid, desultory manner, and are chased and teased by chaflinches, tomtits, and other small birds, by whom, indeed, they are sometimes molested in their retreat, as well as by the urchins of the village. The flight of this bird, which is generally low, is pre-eminently soft, noiseless, and volatile. It displays considerable agility on the wing, and may be seen in the tranquil summer evening turning backward and forward over a limited extent cf beat. It 2iso, its movements being no doubt directed by the presence or absence of food, makes more extended peregrinations. If its domicile be at some distance, it flies regularly at the proper time, which is that of twilight or moonlight, to the same haunt. During the day it conceals itself in hollow trees, rocks, buildings, and evergreens, or some such covert. It is a bird of cultivated taste, preferring even villages and towns them- selves, as well as their neighbourhoods, to the mountains or forests; and frequents buildings, church steeples, crevices and holes in walls, for shelter’ and a roosting-place; as also, occasionally, trees in unfrequented places. Montagu says that it sometimes flies by day, particularly in the winter, cr when it has young. When at rest it stands in an upright position. Moles, rats, and mice are extensively preyed om by the bird before us: as many as fifteen of the latter have been found clcse to the nest of a single pair, the prcdauce of the forage of one night, or rather part of the preduce, for 158 WHITE OWL. others doubtless must have been devoured before morning. He who destroys an Owl ‘s an encourager of vermin—nine mice have been found in the stomach jo8 one, a veritable ‘nine killer.” It is very interesting to watch it when hunting for such prey—stop shert suddenly in its buoyant flight, and drop in the most adroit manner to the earth, from which it for the mest part speedily re-ascends with its booty in its claw; occasionally, however, it remains on the spot for a considerable time; ‘and this,’ says Sir Wilham Jardine, 4s always done at the season of incubation for the support of the young.’ It also oczasionally eats small birds—thrushes, larks, bunting’, sparrows, and others, as also beetles and other insects. A tame one kept in a large garden, killed a lapwing, its companion. Mr. Waterton argues ah x4 Owls cannot destroy pigeons, or the pigeons would be afraid of them as they are of Hawks; but this is not quite conclusive; for, as shewn in previous articles, pigeons and other small birds become habituated to the presence of Hawks, and the latter, as it would seem, to theirs, so that both parties dwell together in amity as much as the Owis and pigeons, from acquired habit, or natural instinct. ‘A person,’ dice Bishop Stanley, ‘who kept pigeons, and often had a great number of young ones destroyed, laid it on a pair of Owls which visited the premises; and accord- ingly, cne moonlight night, he stationed himself, gun in hand, close to the dove- iipniciee for the purpose of shooting the Owls. He had not taken his station long, before he saw one of trem flying out with a prize in its claws; he pulled the trigger, and down came the poor bird, but instead of finding the carease of a young pigeon, he found an old rat, nearly dead.’ ‘These Owls feed on shrew mice, though reiected by cats and other animals, on account, as 1s supposed, of their disliking either their taste or smell, but it would seem that they do not prefer them, for the Rev. Leonafd Jenyns has observed that shrews are repeatedly found whole beneath the nest, as if cast out for the like reason; and IT cannot help thinking that the very frequent occurrence of these mice dead on “pathways in fields, which every one must have observed, may be attributable to the same cause. Fish is also occasionally the prey of this species of Owl, as well as of others, possibly at times of all. It has been suggested that the glare of their eyes may be a means of WHITE OWL. 159 attracting the fish within their reach, but I must place this fancy in the same category with another which I have alluded to under the head of the Snowy Owl. Not to mention that other birds, such as the Osprey and Fishing-Eagle, which take fish in the same manner, by pouncing on them, find them ready to their claw without the need of any attractive influence, and that Owls see as well at the time they fly, as the Osprey at the time that it does, and that fish, as every fly-fisher knows, keep the same general positions by night that they do by day, it may be remarked, as those who have engaged in ‘Barbel-blazing’ in the River Wharfe well know, that though certain fish may sometimes be attracted more cr less by light, as the salmon, yet they are not necessarily so, for that the light oftentimes seems to keep them pertinaceously at the bottom of the stream. Besides, how is the instantaneous catching of the fish by the Owl to be effected? They are caught from the middle of the pool.—Is the Owl to keep hovering over them after the manner of the Kestrel, until they have time to ascend from the depth and answer to the wooing of his eyes, inviting them in the language of Mrs. Bond to her ducks, ‘O! will you, will you, wont you, wont you, come and be killed?’ ‘You may call spirits from the vasty deep,’ says Shakespeare, ‘but will they come when you do ecail them?’ and I am inclined to think that the fishes will be found in their deep, at least as deaf to such an invitation. The White Owl is said to collect and hoard up food in its place of resort, as a provision against a day of scarcity. It seizes its prey in its claw, and conveys it therein, for the most part, when it has young to feed; one, however, has been seen to transfer it from its claw to its bill while on the wing; but, as Bishop Stanley observes, ‘it 1s evident that as long as the mouse is retained by the claw, the old bird cannot avail itself of its feet in its ascent under the tiles, or approach to their holes; consequentiy, before it attempts this, it perches on the nearest part of the roof, and there removing the mouse from its claw to its bill, continues its flight to the nest. Some idea may be formed of the number of mice destroyed by a pair of Barn Owls, when it is known that in the short space of twenty minutes two old birds earried food to their young twelve times; thus destroying at least forty mice every hour during the time they continued hunting; and as young Owls remain long in the nest, many i69 WHITE OWL. hundreds of mice must be destroyed in the course of rearing them.’ The note of this species is a sereech—a harsh prolongation of the syllables hee-whit,’ and it seldom, if ever, hoots. It has been asserted that it never hoots, but ‘never’s a bold word.’ Sir William Jardine is not the man to misstate a fact. What if the White Owl should be to be added to the number of mocking birds? The Rev. Andrew Matthews’ reasoning on this subject is somewhat obscure: he is of opinion that the White Owl does not hoot, and in corrobo- ration thereof, says that while a tame Brown Owl lived, the large trees round the house were nightly the resort of ‘many wild birds of his species,’ who left no doubt about their note; but after his death, though the screeching continued, the hooting ceased. If attacked these birds turn on their backs, and snap and hiss. The young while in the nest make an odd kind of snoring noise, which seems to be intended as a call to their parents for food. The White Owl builds its nest, for the most part, in old and deserted, as well as in existing buildings and ruins, chimneys, eaves, or mouldering crevices, barns, dove-cotes, church-steeples, pigeon-lofts, and, but very rarely, in hollow trees. With the pigeons, if there are any in the place, they live in the most complete harmony, and unjustly often bear the blame of the depred ations committed by jackdaws and other misdemeanants, both quadruped and biped. The nest, if one be made at all, for oftentimes a mere hollow serves the purpose, is built of a few sticks or twigs, lined with a little grass or straw, or, though but seldom, with hair or wool; and this is all that it fabricates, and that to but a small extent either of bulk or surface. The eggs are white and of a round shape, generally two or three, per sometimes as many as five or six in number, which may be accounted for by the ascertained fact that they will sometimes lay a first, second, and third cintch of two eges cach. It will be seen that I have before alluded to something of ae sort, and I have a most extraordinary mreumstance of the ind to narrate ‘in loco,’ of the Moorhen. ‘he young have been found in the nest m the months of July ‘and 8 Sepiember, and even in December. A pair observed by the Rev. John Atkinson, of I Layer Marney Rectcry, Kelvedon, Mssex, for four successive years, crdinarily reared four young. WHITE OWD. 161 but had no more than one brood in the year. The remarks I have before made about the dispersion of birds are borne out by his observation, that ‘the old birds remained, but the young ones seemed to leave the immediate neighbourhood;’ and again, in the list of the birds of Melbourne, Derbyshire, by J. J. Briggs, Esq., he says, writing of this same specics, ‘hundreds of individuals have been reared in this spot, but it is never occupied by more than one pair at the same time; for no sooner is a brood fully fledged and able to maintain itself, than a pair of the strongest drive the rest of the family from the spot, and occupy it themselves.’ The appearance of this Owl, owing to its somewhat wedge- shaped face, is very singular, especially when asleep, as it is then even more elongated. The whole plumage is beautifully clean and pure. Old birds become more white. Male; weight, about eleven ounces; length, about one foot one inch, or a little more; bill, yellowish pmk, yellow in the fully adult bird, and almost white in old age; cere, flesh-coloured; iris, deep brown, or bluish black: 16 is only opened a little laterally during the day, but quite round at night; there is a slight tinge of reddish brown round the inner corner of the eye. Head, pale buff, thinly spotted with black and white; the ends of the feathers are tinted with pale grey, and the tips marked zigzag with dark purple and black and white spots; crown, delicately barred with waves of pale grey; and is darker or lighter in different individuals; neck, pure silky white, sometimes tinged with delicate yellow or buff, and small brown spots; the ruff the same, but often marked on the upper part with yellowish or darkish tips; sometimes the upper part and the lower alternate these colours ‘vicé versa,’ and sometimes it is yellowish all round; nape, as the head. Chin, throat, and breast, as the neck; back, as the head, but a shade darker: different specimens have more or less buff and grey. The wings extend about half an inch beyond the tail, and expand to the width of three feet or over; greater and lesser wing coverts, beautifully spotted with white, like a string of pearls; primaries, buif on the outer webs, paler on the inner, edged with white, or altogether white, and barred or spotted with alternate black and white, both freckled over: beneath they are yellowish white; towards the ends the dark bars shew faintly through; the second feather is the longest, the first nearly as long; secondaries, pale buff, barred 3? VOL, I. M 162 WHITE OWL. or spotted irregularly in like manner with two white and two grey spots on each side of the shafts; tertiaries, as the back: all the quills are pure white on three fourths of the breadth of their inner webs; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white, sometimes pale buff with small dark spots. Tail, pale buff, with four or five blackish grey bars; the tip white; the side feathers almost entirely yellowish white, as are the inner webs of all the feathers except the two middle ones; it is jagged at the end, as are the wings; tail coverts, as. the back; legs, feathered with short white, or sometimes very light rufous hair-like feathers, shortest near the toes, which are flesh-coloured, but covered above with the feathers of the legs; claws, brown, thin, and much pointed; that of the middle toe slightly serrated on the inner side, and all grooved beneath. ‘They become whitish in age. The female resembles the male, but the colours are duller, and the breast is often marked with the yellowish grey of the back, and spotted on the tips of the feathers at its lower part with greyish black. Length, one foot three inches and a half. The wings expand to the width of three feet two inches or over. The young birds are at first covered with snow-white down; the yellow plumage is gradually assumed, being at first paler in colour than in the “old birds, and the breast less tinged with it; but being considerably like the old ones, there. is not much change as they advance in age. It is long before they are able to. fly. When fully fledg ed the length is about twelve inches; the bill pale flesh- colour; iris, black; there is an orange brown spot before it; the face is dull white, the ruff white, its tips rufous; breast, white; back, pale reddish yellow, mottled with grey and brown as in the adult; primaries, light yellowish, tinged with grey, and only a little mottled. Tail, as the primaries, and but faintly barred; claws, pale purple brown. Varieties of this bird have occasionally occurred. Meyer mentions one which was pied yellow and white; another, of which the ground colour was perfectly white, and the pencillings on the upper plumage very indistinctly defined in the palest possible colouring. “Lome \ Os 163 LITTLE OWT. LITTLE NIGHT OWL. Strix passerina, Linnzvs. LATHAM. “ — nudipes, NILison. JARDINE. “ dasypus, MEYER. Noctua passerina, JENYNS, SELBY. “ _nudipes, GOULD. Striz—Some species of Owl. Passerina, Passer— A Sparrow. ‘THts’ says Wilson, ‘is one of the least of the whole genus; but, like many other little folks, makes up in neatness of general form and appearance for deficiency of size, and is, perhaps, the most shapely of all our Owls.’ The Little Owl is common in Russia, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, Greece, and the Levant; and in the northern parts of North America, according to Wilson, but his description seems to me to be utterly inapplicable to the bird before us. Two were taken in chimneys many years ago, in the parish of Lambeth. One was seen in Wiltshire, nailed up against a barn door, and probably many another has adorned the ‘samekeeper’s museum.’ ‘Three are recorded to have been met with in Devonshire; one in Worcestershire; one in Flintshire; one near Bristol; a pair bred near Norwich, and two other specimens have been authenticated in Norfolk. One was shot at Widrington, in Northumberland, in January, 1812. One was on sale in July, 1842, in the Brighton market, and said to have been shot in an orchard at Sheffield Park, near Fletching: it was believed from the light colour of its plumage to be a young bird. One was caught near Derby, which lived a long time in captivity, becoming so far tame as to know those who fed it: it used to drink much. Two others were met with in the parish of Melbourne, in the same county; 164 LITTLE OWL. and one in Herefordshire, in 1888, now in the collection of Mr. Chaffey. In Ireland it has not hitherto been known to have occurred. The Little Owl resorts to the vicinity of human dwellings, and finds a retreat in the crannies of old walls and roofs, churches and towers, as also in rocks, and the umbrageous recesses of pine and other forests, woods, and plantations. It is principally nocturnal in its habits, but takes wing occasionally in the daytime in dull weather, as well as in the twilight. It flies well, though its wings are not very long, but with an up-and-down motion, like that of a Woodpecker. If taken young there is no difficulty in rearing and taming it, and it is much used on the Continent as a decoy for entrapping small birds. “That small birds,’ says Bishop Stanley, ‘gene- rally speaking, have a great dislike to Owls, is clear, from the uproar that takes place if an unfortunate Owl is dis- turbed in the daytime, and compelled to appear in broad daylight, pursued, as it is sure to be, by a host of them, who persecute it by every means in their power. And we may therefore conclude, that they either take it for their real enemy, the Hawk, or that it does now and then, when it can, feast upon any of them which may, by accident, fall into its clutches. Of this antipathy the bird-catchers in Italy know how to take advantage.’ They are found alone or in pairs, not in companies, and are pursued themselves by hawks, rooks, magpies, and jays. Durimg the breeding-season they fly about, and chatter even in the daytime. It feeds on mice, as also on swallows and other small birds, which it sometimes catches on the roost, bats, and insects. According to Bewick, it is said to pluck the birds before it eats them. The note resembles the syllables ‘keu, keu, keewit, or koowit;’ and when perched, ‘pooh, pooh,’ its voice being more drawn out in the breeding-season. It is the opinion of one author that the harsh and dissonant cry of the Owls is for the purpose of alarming their prey, and giving them oppor- tunity to get out of the way to prevent their too great destruction. This is most surely a baseless theory, and runs counter to the whole course of nature. I think I may venture to assert that no peculiar faculty is given to any living creature for the immediate benefit of any other kind but its own—for that of any other individual but itself. Mr. Mudie, with rather more show of reason, suggests on the exact LITTLE OWL. 165 contrary, that the object is to alarm the prey sought, and so frighten them out of their coverts into the way of their pursuers, but this too is mere conjecture. One may almost wonder that it has occurred to no ‘savan,’ to suppose that the sole purport may have been to give different authors an opportunity of promulging each the separate notions of his own imagination on the subject. Like the rest of the Gul this one breeds early in the spring. The nest, so far as one is made, is built im chimneys, and other parts of buildings; pine and other trees, about half-way up; as also in osier beds. The eggs are from two to five i number, and white. The male takes his turn in sitting on them. ‘They are said by Mr. Hewitson to vary in size and shape. ‘The young are hatched in fourteen or fifteen days. Male; weight, four ounces; length, eight inches and a half to nine and a half; bill, yellowish grey, edged and tipped with yellowish—very short, strong, much hooked, and surrounded at the base with bristly feathers; cere, dull yellow or greenish yellow; the feathers at its base are bristly at the tips, partially black on the shafts; iris, pale yellow—a streak of black extends from it to the bill; the eye is surrounded with yellowish white. Head, greyish brown, spotted with rufous white, with a central streak of the same on the crown; the ruff incomplete and inconspicuous, the feathers being a little more curved than the rest: the face is greyish white, passing into brown at the outer side of the eye; neck, brown, spotted behind and on the sides with large white spots, forming a collar, and with a large patch of the same in front; nape, brown, spotted with white; chin, white; un- derneath it a semicircle of yellowish brown, with darker bars; throat, banded with white, curving upward towards the ears; breast, yellowish or greyish white tinged with rufous, with brown streaks and spots, longer on the upper part and smaller lower down, forming bars on the middle of it; back, greyish brown, spotted with two white spots, edged with buff on most of the feathers. The wings expand to the width of one foot eight or nine inches, and extend three quarters of an inch beyond the end of the tail. Greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish brown, the feathers with one white spot partly hid by the brown of the superincumbent feather, which together form lines of 166 LITTLE OWL. white, besides other smaller spots, the shafts being dusky. Primaries, brown, spotted with white or yellowish brown on the outer webs—in some specimens on each web; those on the inner, which are lighter, are larger, and together they form bars which partly shew through; the third is the longest, the fourth nearly as long, the second a very little longer than the fifth, the first shorter than the sixth, and the shortest in the wing. Secondaries, brown, barred with white, shaded at the edges of the bars into reddish brown; tertiaries, as the back; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white, with a few brown spots. ‘Tail, brownish grey, with four, five, or six bars of rounded yellowish white or pale brown spots, and whitish at the tip: it is nearly even, and consists of twelve broad rounded feathers: beneath it is dull ereyish brown, faintly barred with yellowish brown; tail coverts, as the back; under tail coverts, unspotted; legs, rather long, greyish yellow, feathered with short hairy yellowish white feathers, tinged with rufous, with a few dusky spots; toes, greyish yellow, slightly covered with bristly feathers on the upper surface; underneath they are rough; claws, yellowish brown, dusky or black at the tips, strong, and not much curved. The female resembles the male, but is larger. Length, ten to eleven inches; the wings expand to the width of one foot ten inches or over. In the young bird the head is rufous grey, clouded with white; the large round spots on the back, and the bars on the tail become gradually more marked than in the old birds, and the streaks on the breast appear. In age the birds become lighter-coloured. ‘ENGMALM’S OY 167 TENGMALM’S OWL. TENGMALM’S NIGHT OWL. Sirtx Tengmalmi, GMELIN. LATHAM. “ funerea, LINNAUS, Noctua Tengmalmi, JENYNS. Striz—Some species of Owl. Tengmalmi—Of Tengmalm. Tuts pretty little Owl received its specific name from Gmelin, in compliment to the discoverer, Dr. Tengmalm, an able ornithologist, who lived near Stockholm, in Sweden. It inhabits principally the northern parts of Europe— Russia, Sweden, Livonia, and Norway, and has also been met with in Germany, France, and Transalpine Italy. It is said to be very abundant in North America. In Yorkshire, one was killed at Hunmanby, in the East- Riding, by Admiral Mitford’s gamekeeper, about 1847. In 1836 a specimen, recently shot, was purchased in a poulterer’s shop in London; another was killed: the same year in Kent; one on the sea-coast, near Marsden, in the county of Durham, in October, 1848; and one near Morpeth, in Northumberland, in 1812. There has as yet been no discovery of the occurrence of this species in Ireland. In Scotland one was killed in May, 1847, at Spinningdale, in Sutherlandshire. This bird is strictly nocturnal in its habits, and is so dazzled by the light of the sun, if by any accident forced into it, that it may easily be caught with the hand. I¢ frequents wooded districts—the thick and extensive pine forests of the north, and orchards, and other lesser plantations. It may be easily tamed, even if taken in the adult state, and exhibits many amusing positions. It erects the feathers of the face at times to a considerable extent. In flight this Owl is light and easy. 168 TENGMALM’S OWL. Its food consists of mice, small birds, moths, beetles, and other insects. It does not swallow its prey whole. The note sounds like the syllables ‘keu, keu, kook, kook,’ varied in the breeding-season into ‘kuk, kuk,’ repeated for several minutes at a time, at intervals of a minute or two. It is one of the superstitions of the Indians to whistle when they hear it, as sailors do in a calm when wishing for a breeze. The silence of the bird in reply, to use an Iricism, is considered an omen of death. These Owls are said to breed in holes of trees, half way up them, and as being deficient in such an ‘exhibition of industry,’ to make no manner of nest, or only to use a little grass for the purpose. The eggs are white, and two in number. Male; length, from eight inches and a half to mme and a half; bill, pale greyish yellow or bluish white, darker on the sides, hid at the base by the feathers. Cere, sometimes dashed with black; iris, pale yellow; the eyes are surrounded by a dark ring, forming a band, which is broadest on the inner side. Head, reddish brown, spotted with small yellowish white spots; the ruff yellowish or greyish white, mottled or streaked with black over the eyes; crown, reddish brown; neck, spotted behind as the head. Nape, as the head, the spots larger, forming a sort of band; chin and throat, brown and greyish white. Breast, yellowish or greyish white, indistinctly streaked with lighter brown on the centre of each feather in the upper part, but only the tip on the lower; back, as the head, but the spots larger. The wings expand to the width of one foot eleven inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, as the back, partially spotted with white. Primaries, reddish brown, barred on the outer webs with three or four oval white spots; the third and fourth are the longest in the wing, the latter the longer of the two; Meyer says the former. They reach to within an inch of the end of the tail. Tertiaries, the same, the spots more square; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white, clouded with brown. ‘Tail, reddish brown, slightly rounded, and barred with four or five series of narrow white spots; it extends about an inch beyond the wings: it is greyish white beneath, the bars shewing through; under tail coverts, white. Legs, short, and, as the toes, yellow, feathered with very soft greyish or whitish yellow hairy feathers, slightly spotted with brown. Claws, slender, yellowish brown, and dusky at the tips. TENGMALM’S OWL. 169 The female measures from nine inches and a half to eleven and a half; the face dull white, the black spot over the eye smaller and paler than in the male. Breast, more spotted than in the male, and the brown of the back darker. Young; length, eight to nine inches; bill, yellowish grey; iris, yellow. The bristly feathers of the face dusky black, with white bases; the ruff brown, but indistinct, a little spotted with white around the eyes. Breast, whitish, mingled with brown; back, reddish brown; primaries, barred with four rows of small round spots. Tail, barred as the wings; under tail coverts, dull white, tipped with brown. MOTTLED OWL. AMERICAN MOTTLED OWL. RED OWL, (YOUNG.) LITTLE COMMON SCREECH OWL. Strix Asio, LINNZUS. Strir—An Owl. ASO sic sacssveee ? Tis Owl is a native of North America, and is met with in Oregon and Columbia, as well as, abundantly, in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labrador. A single specimen has occurred in this country. It was shot in Hawksworth Wood, the property of Lord Cardigan, on the banks of the River Aire, near Kirkstall, Yorkshire, in the spring of the year 1852. There was another with it at the time, and no doubt, from the season of the year, they had been building, or would have built; but every rare bird is so hunted, as the saying is, ‘from pillar to post,’ that there is small chance of any increase of family. Richard Hobson, Esq., M.D., of Leeds, an excellent and most acute naturalist, recorded the fact, with full particalars, in my magazine, “Ihe Naturalist, August, 1855. These Owls rest or spend the day either in the hole of some decayed tree, or in the thickest parts of evergreens. They are generally found perched on the roofs of houses, on fences, or garden gates. They have been kept without difficulty in confinement, and seem comfortable and happy utterimg their notes with as much apparent satisfaction as if at liberty. Audubon writes as follows of the bird:—‘The flight of the Mottled Owl is smooth, rapid, protracted, and noiseless. On alighting, which it does plumply, it immediately bends its body, turns its head to look behind it, performs a curious MOTTLED OWL. MOTTLED OWL. 171 nod, utters its notes, then shakes and plumes itself, and resumes its flight in search of prey. It now and then, while on the wing, produces a clicking sound with its mandibles, but more frequently when perched near its mate or young. This, I have thought, is done by the bird to manifest its courage, and let the hearer know that it is not to be meddled with, although few birds of prey are more gentle when seized.’ They hunt through the woods, or over fields, in search of small birds, field-mice, and moles, from which they chiefly derive their sustenance. The note, which is heard at the distance of several hundred yards, is a tremulous, doleful, mournful chatter, and, like that of other Owls, is thought of an ominous import, and with as little reason as in their case. The nest is placed in the hollow trunk of a tree, sometimes only some six or seven feet from the ground, but at other times as high as from thirty to forty. It is composed of a few grasses and feathers. The eggs are four or five in number, of a round shape, and pure white; only one set of eggs is laid, unless the nest is disturbed. The young remain in the nest until they are able to fly. The ear-tufts on the head are composed of a series of ten feathers, commencing over the middle of the eye, and ex- tending backwards a quarter of an inch beyond it. The young are fully fledged by the middle of August. The grey plumage is not assumed till the bird is two years old. In the interval the feathers are sometimes a mixture of both colours—sometimes of a deep chocolate colour, and again nearly black. Length, from about ten to ten inches and a half; the upper mandible, which is much curved, is black on its basal half, the lower one black, the tip horn-colour. Cere, bright yel- low; from twenty-five to thirty black bristles, filamented on their basal half, but single on the remainder, surround the bill. On the crown the feathers are divided along the centre of each with a chocolate-coloured stripe, and edged with light brown. The disc is formed by an extension right and left of stiff feathers, standing out from the tufts covering the ears, which tufts constitute the horns, the feathers of which are an inch and a quarter in length. Neck on the back, and nape, marked in the same manner but the stripe narrower, 172 MOTTLED OWL. the sides of the neck lighter coloured, but with similar markings. The chin has the feathers half white on the lower portion, the upper covered with lght brown pointed spots; the throat similarly marked but gradually darker; the feathers of the breast have broad chocolate-coloured longitudinal patches, crossed with narrow stripes of the same colour. The back on its upper part has chocolate-coloured central stripes on the feathers, with alternate transverse light brown and dark brown bars; on the lower part it is similarly marked but without the longitudinal and central chocolate-coloured stripes. The wings have the second quill longer than the first, the third than the second, and the fourth than the third. The greater wing coverts have longitudinal and central chocolate- coloured stripes, the lower portions of the outer webs being white, the inner webs light brown; lesser wing coverts marked in the same way, shewing a longitudinal white stripe when the feathers are naturally arranged. Of the primaries, the first has five white bars on the outer web, and three on the inner. It is beautifully pectinated on its outer web for the space of half an inch from the tip; the mner web abruptly notched for an inch and a half. There are on the outer web seven yellowish white patches turned from the margin towards the shaft, and four rather light-coloured yellow bars on the imner web, running obliquely, the last bar being somewhat indistinct; the second feather is pectinated on the outer web for the length of a little over an inch, commencing at about the same distance from the tip, and on this web there are eight rather light yellow patches; on the inner web is an abrupt notch nearly an inch and a half from the tip, and three distinct and three indistinct bars. The third feather begins to be slightly pectinated at not quite an inch and a half from the tip, and extends for only half an inch upwards on its outer web, on which are seven rather lght yellow bars; on the inner web, and on its upper portion, are three similarly-coloured bars, and on the lower part four indistinct ones. The fourth feather in place of being pectinated is slightly hollowed; on it are eight rather light yellow bars, and on the inner web are four distinct and four indistinct bars. The five first quill feathers have a delicately-formed fringe on the margin of their inner web, opposite the pectinated portion of the outer web. Greater under wing coverts, white on the upper portion, ash-coloured on the lower; lesser under wing coverts, yellowish, with ash-coloured MOTTLED OWL. 173 bars. The tail, which consists of twelve feathers, has the two central ones slightly the longest, and the outer one on each side the shortest; on each are eight pale yellow transverse bars, the ends of all these feathers round. The upper tail coverts on their lower portions have a_chocolate-coloured central stripe, while the upper portions are a mottled brown. The legs are covered with hairy feathers, having a pale yellow ground with a mottled brown surface; toes partly scutellated, the remainder covered with hairy feathers; claws, very much eurved, and of a dark horn-colour. The three lobes under each toe are prominently deep, and of a sharp wedge shape. The above description is compiled from particulars which Dr. Hobson has been so obliging as to favour me with, 174 HAWK OWL. CANADA OWL. Strix funerea, TEMMINCK. Sturnia funerea, GOULD. Noctua funerea, JENYNS. Strir—Some species of Owl. Funerea—Funereal. Tue soft plumage of Owls, and the formation of the feathers of their wings is, in the opinion of some writers, to enable them to steal noiselessly on their prey. ‘This, however, I think is at best but a fanciful speculation; as far, at least, 1 mean, as regards any peculiar advantage being afforded to the Owl, ‘par excellence,’ on this account. No birds of prey make such a noise with their wings as by it to give their prey timely notice of their approach—the Owl, therefore, is not especially privileged in this respect. Q. E. D. The Hawk Owl is a connecting link between the Owls and the Hawks, possessing many points of similarity to each; the long tail and small head of the latter, as well as the habit of flying by day; and resembling the former in the ruff and the feet; one might almost think it a hybrid between the two. This bed is an inhabitant of Germany, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Lapland, Russia, and other parts of the north of Europe: in some years it appears far more abundantly than in others. It is plentiful im all the gh latitudes of North America.