hole, for the bird will by this means entrap itself when endeavouring
to come out for the evening. I t is much used
on the Continent as a decoy to entrap small birds.” M.
Vieillot says it is seldom found in forests.
The actions of a specimen kept for more than two years
by Mr. Leadbeater of Brewer-street were singularly grotesque
and amusing.
Edwards drew his figure of this Little Owl, plate 228,
from a specimen caught alive in a chimney in London ; and a
second example was taken about the same time in a similar
situation, in the parish of Lambeth. Scopoli says it builds
in chimneys in Camiola. Mr. Rennie, in a note to a recent
edition of White’s Selborne, says, “ I recollect seeing in
Wiltshire the remains of a specimen of the rare Sparrow-Owl,
S trix passerina, nailed up to a barn-door.” — Page 84.
Two specimens, according to Dr. Moore, have occurred in
Devonshire : Montagu has also mentioned one in the same
county. My friend Mr. T. C. Eyton sent me a notice of
one taken near Bristol; Dr. Hastings mentions one instance
of the occurrence of this bird in Worcestershire ; and Pennant
speaks of one taken in Flintshire. In a direction north
of London, Mr. Hunt of Norwich, in his British Ornithology,
says, “ We recollect a nest of these birds being taken
at no great distance from Norwich;” and Mr. Paget, in the
Sketch of the Natural History of Yarmouth, mentions two
specimens as well authenticated. The Little Owl has occurred
in Yorkshire; and the woodcut in Mr. Bewick’s work
was taken from a drawing of a specimen shot at Widrington
in Northumberland, in January 1818. M. Temminck says
this species does not go beyond the 55th degree of North
latitude. I t is common in Germany and Holland, visits
Spain and the Morea, and, according to Mr. Strickland, is
common in the Levant.
The beak is yellowish white; the irides very pale straw
colour; feathers of the facial disk greyish white, passing into
brown on the outer side of each eye; chin, and sides of the
neck, below the ears, nearly white ; top of the head and
neck clove brown, with numerous spots of greyish white ; the
back and wings clove brown, with roundish white spots
arranged in several lines on the scapulars and wing-coverts,
and varied with other white spots which are less distinct, each
brown feather having a white spot, which is partly concealed
by the brown end of the feather over i t ; wing-primaries umber
brown, barred with yellow brown or wood brown: the
first quill-feather short; the second and fifth longer, and equal
in length; the third and fourth the longest, and also equal:
upper surface of tail-feathers clove brown, barred with pale
wood brown; upper part of the breast with an indistinct
brown and white transverse band, below greyish white with
longitudinal spots of clove brown ; under tail-coverts white ;
under surface of tail-feathers dull greyish brown, barred with
yellow brown : legs very long, covered with close short white
hair-like feathers,—from which circumstance this species has
received the name of nudipes from M. Nilsson; the toes are
very slightly covered ; the claws sharp and black.
The whole length of this bird is about eight inches and a
half. The females are rather larger than the males, and the
general colour of their plumage is paler.
According to Bechstein, in the young birds before the first
moulting, “ the head is of a soft reddish grey, clouded with
white. The large round spots on the back become gradually
more marked; and the reddish white of the under part by
degrees acquires long streaks of brown on the breast and
sides.