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ATHENE NOCTUA.
Little Owl.

Striv noctua, Retz. Faun. Suec., p. 85.

—— passerina, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. Pp. 65.

Noctua passerina, Cuv. Régn. Anim., edit. 1817. tom. i. p. 332
—— glaux, Savig. Descr. de Egypte, Hist, Nat.,
Athene noctua, Boie, Isis, 1826, Deroiltoee
Stria nudipes et S. psilodactyla, Nilss. Orn. Suec., tom. i. p. 68, tab. 2
Athene psilodactyla, Brehm, Voég. Deutschl., tom. i. pe LO; fab} 8. ras
Scotophilus nudipes, Jard. Nat. Lib. Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 274. rr
Athene passerina, Boie, Isis, 1822, p- 549.
Cephaloptyne noctua, Kaup, Mon. Strig. in Jard. Cont. Orn., 1850,
Carine passerina, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst., p. 29.

Syrnia psilodactyla, Macgill. Hist. of Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 417.
Surma noctua, Keys. et Blas. Wirbelth. Eur., p. 32.

tom. i. p. 105.

p. 105.

 

Ir this little Owl were indigenous to Britain instead of an accidental visitor, it would doubtless be a general
favourite ; for its economy is interesting, and its manners somewhat singular. It is a very common bird, even
so near to us as Holland, whence specimens in the flesh are frequently sent to the London markets, and I fear
often palmed upon our collectors as British killed. On the continent of Europe it attracts especial notice
by its habit of resorting to villages and towns, and taking up its abode in old ruins, church-steeples, and
other lofty buildings. During the breeding-season, it is often seen flying about in the evening before the
shades of night have closed in upon the day, and in the dawn before the sun has fairly risen. Its notes are
singular and unearthly, so much so that it is regarded by superstitious persons as a bird of ill omen; in the
mind of the ornithologist no such feeling exists, and, as before stated, we should be pleased if its visits to
this country were more frequent ; as it is, however, they have been sufficiently numerous to entitle it to rank
among British birds, and there is at least one instance on record of its having bred with us. So far back as
the time of Edwards, a specimen was caught in a chimney in London; and Mr. Yarrell states that a second
was taken about the same time in a similar situation in the parish of Lambeth; and from that time until the
present day instances of its having been shot in nearly every county are on record. Rennie saw one nailed
to a barn-door in Wiltshire, doubtless with other spoils of a gamekeeper who regarded it as pertaining to his
catalogue of ‘ vermin ;” and Mr. Hunt, in his ‘ British Ornithology,’ says, ‘‘ we recollect a nest of these birds
being taken at no great distance from Norwich.” The most recent historian of the birds of Norfolk county
(Mr. Stevenson) states that two examples have come under his notice—one taken alive at Easton in 1846, which
lived in confinement till December 1848, and another captured on board a fishing-smack, about ten miles
off Yarmouth, in February 1862. Mr. Bond has a specimen which was shot at Sevenoaks, in Kent, in May
the same year; Mr. E. H. Rodd, of the western county of Cornwall, records one killed near Helston, and
two near Plymouth ; as yet, however, no example has been seen either in Scotland or Ireland.

In Bailly’s ‘ Ornithology of Savoy ’ it is stated that this species, ‘‘ instead of dwelling in the forests, evinces
a preference for the ruins of old edifices, houses, towers, and abandoned chateaus, the steeples of churches
and convents, and the hollow trees in their neighbourhood ; in such situations it breeds and passes the
greater part of its life. Towards the end of March or April, the female lays four or five eggs on any soft
deposit in a hole in a wall, or the inner timber of houses, and sometimes on the debris of roots, dried leaves
and rags collected by the rats for their own use, but very rarely in the ge of trees. The eggs, which are
white, are of a rounded form, and a trifle larger than those of the Scops. | The Little Owl being able to see in
the daylight better than its congeners, hunts for its prey during the twilight of evening and on dull morn-
ings in the woods around its residence, and when breeding is observed to gO out earlier in the ev ening and
to return later in the morning than other Owls. During autumn and winter, it 1s met with at those times in
the hedges and on the trees bordering the roadside, and those
centre of towns and villages. When the ground is covered with snow, it ise pee
the excrements of animals; at this time ‘t also enters isolated buildings, caverns of rocks, vau ts of ol
d to by rats and bats. From such places its voice, which is less

which occur in the middle of fields and in the

approaches the farms, and lives upon

castles, and other similar situations resorte

hollow than that of most other Owls, is frequently heard to resound. , | |
ion at intervals of two or three seconds, as one man

The cry, which generally resembles the

words heme or eedm, is repeated several times 1n ae a intel ee fn
. mm 2 eae aes ’ - uttered Inas “ong g sh; ‘
attenti or. These cries, distinctly |
calls to attract the attention of anothe

i se great alar ose persons who are weak enough to
night, cause great alarm to those ]

of evening and in the stillness of the