Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/110

 proved similar to a Strix Scops in his collection. Mr. Joseph Poole, of Killiane, Wexford, wrote to me on the 19th of April, 1847, that a scops-eared owl, which had come under his notice, was killed a few days before that date, near Kilmore, in the south of the county.

In the month of August, 1826, I met with a bird of this species, perched in what had been a window, among the ruins of Otricoli, near Eome. It admitted of a close approach, and looked most contentedly at home. When proceeding from Malta to the Morea, in H.M.S. Beacon, on the 25th of April, 1841, and 135 miles eastward of Etna, and less than half that distance from Calabria (the nearest land), a scops-eared owl, on its northward flight, came on board. It was struck down and captured, just as it had clutched a lesser whitethroat (Sylvia curruca).

The (Strix passerina, Temm.), which has occasionally been obtained in England, cannot yet be included with certainty in the Irish catalogue ; — nor can it in that of Scotland. On the 22nd of April, 1841, one of these owls flew on board H.M.S. Beacon, when forty miles east of Malta, and remained for a short time. Others were seen during the next few days, as we sailed towards the Morea. Early in June one was shot at Paros ; and I saw another near Naussa.

Otus vulgaris, Flem.

Strix otus, Linn.

addition to such places, I have known this species to be shot during the dusk of the evening, at low water in Belfast bay, a mile distant from the land, by a person waiting (in a barrel sunk in the ooze) for the flying of wigeon. The white owl has, in several instances, been similarly obtained.

An individual to whom the long-eared owl is well known, in- forms me, that in a close plantation of spruce firs ( Abies communis,) at Scoutbush, near Carrickfergus, he for several years had