HAWK-OWL.
SURNIA FUNEREA {Linn.).
Strix funerea, Linn. S. N. i. p. 133 (1766).
Strix nisoria, Naum. i. p. 427.
Syrnia funerea, Macg. iii. p. 404.
Surnia funerea, Hewitson, i. p. 65; Yarr. ed. 4, i. p. 183;
Dresser, v. p. 309.
Chouette caparacoch, French; Habichtseule, German.
The specimens of this bird that have occurred in the
British Islands have been few and far between. I quote
from Mr. Howard Saunders’ recently published ‘Manual ’
as to dates and localities:—One off the coast of Cornwall,
March 1830. One near Yatton, in Somersetshire,
August 1837. One on the island of Unst, Shetlands,
in the winter of 1860-61. One near Glasgow, December
1863. One near Greenock, November 1868. One near
Amesbury, Wilts, for which no precise date is given.
I find that Mr. J. E. Harting, in his ‘ Handbook of
British Birds,’ published in 1872, records two other
occurrences—one at Shelf, near Bradford, without date,
and another near Greenock, in December 1871.
This Owl is an inhabitant of the pine-forests of
Northern Europe, Asia, and America, and as I know