Colonel Montagu from specimens killed in Yorkshire, which
are still preserved, and other examples have occurred. It is,
however, so rare, that little has been observed of its habits
here. It is believed, and with reason, to be migratory, visiting
us in summer, and retiring, before the cold weather commences,
to the south of Europe and to North Africa. It is
said to be strictly nocturnal, feeding upon mice, beetles, and
large moths. It forms a simple nest in the fissures of rocks,
or in holes of trees, laying from two to four or five eggs,
which are white, one inch three lines in length, by one inch
and half a line in breadth.
One example of this little Owl was taken some time since
near London; and I am indebted to Mr. Joseph Clarke, of
Saffron Walden, for the knowledge of the occurrence of two
specimens on the estate of Lord Braybrooke, at Audley End
in Essex. Dr. Hastings, in his Natural History of Worcestershire,
notices one that was taken alive near Fladbury, and
brought to the residence of the late Mrs. Perrot, at Chantry.
One shot in Yorkshire, is said to be in the collection of Mr.
Foljambe of Osberton ; a second, shot near Wetherby in the
spring of 1805, is in the collection of Mr. Fothergill of
York ; and a third example, also shot in Yorkshire, is recorded
by Mr. Selby to have been in the possession of the
late Mr. Thomas Bewick. My friend Mr. John Hogg of
the Temple, in his Natural History of the vicinity of Stockton
on-Tees, says of the Scops, that it “ breeds in Castle
Eden Dene. Mr. Winch informs me, that he has seen
young birds just taken from the nest by the woodman.”—
Page 4.
This little species, though inhabiting an extensive range
in different countries, is confined to the temperate and.
warmer parts of the old world, where insects are known to
abound. Mr. Gould, in his Birds of Europe, says it is found
in Asia. It does not visit the North of Europe even in
summer, but is found at that season in the southern part of
Germany. In France it is not uncommon, and is said to
appear and depart with the Swallow. Advancing southward
to the shores of the Mediterranean, it is even plentiful; and
Mr. W. Spence, the well known Entomologist, has thus
recorded its summer habits :—*
“ This Owl, which in summer is very common in Italy, is
remarkable for the constancy and regularity with which it
utters its peculiar note or cry. I t does not merely ‘ to the
moon complain’ occasionally, but keeps repeating its plaintive
and monotonous cry of 4 kew, hew,' (whence its Florentine
name of Chiu, pronounced almost exactly like the English
letter q,) in the regular intervals of about two seconds, the
livelong night; and until one is used to it, nothing can well
be more wearisome. Towards the end of April last year,
1830, one of these Owls established itself in the large Jardin
Anglais, behind the house where we resided at Florence;
and, until our departure for Switzerland in the beginning of
June, I recollect but one or two instances in which it was not
constantly to be heard, as if in spite to the Nightingales
which abounded there, from nightfall to midnight (and probably
much later), whenever I chanced to be in the back part
of the house, or took our friends to listen to it, and always
with precisely the same unwearied cry, and the intervals between
each as regular as the ticking of a pendulum. This
species of Owl, according to Professor Savi’s excellent
Ornitologia Toscana, vol. i. p. 74, is the only Italian species
which migrates; passing the winter in Africa and southern
Asia, and the summer in the south of Europe. It feeds
wholly upon beetles, grasshoppers, and other insects.”
This little Owl, according to Dr. Smith, goes as far south
in Africa as Senegal; but the species described by Mr.
Swainson under the name of Scops Senegalensis, in his Birds
* Mr. Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, vol. v. p. 654.
i 2