File:A history of the birds of Europe (Plate 53) (6050333350).jpg

GAPE EARED OWL. 110 and who lias recently returned with many well-prepared birds' skins and eggs, assured me that this Owl inhabited also the neighbouring coasts of Spain, and that he had observed it upon its flight to and fro, an assurance which, given by so intelligent as well as conscientious and truth-loving a man, leaves no doubt whatever; the more so since M. Garstensen, a son of the former consul in Morocco, where he was himself born and educated, is thoroughly acquainted with the language of the natives, and he at the same time conferred upon the subject with a French collector." Mr. Gurney thinks the bird alluded to was the Otus capensis of Smith, "Birds of South Africa/' plate 67, as he has frequently re- ceived this bird from Tangier. Since then this bird has been shot six or seven times by Colonel Irby in Spain at Casa Viega, about fifty miles west of Gibraltar, beyond Tarifa, as recorded by Lord Lilford in the P.Z.S. for 1870, p. 2, and, as I have been further informed by Mr. Savile Reid, from Gib- raltar. Lord Lilford says, "from what I can make out this bird migrates northward irregularly in the autumn. Colonel Irby found five or six in a marsh in October, 1868, and has since failed to find them or hear of them in that locality, or elsewhere in Spain, in spring or summer. It is not a common bird near Tangier." Mr. Howard Saunders says he first had positive information of this in 1867, a specimen having been obtained near Utrera. Mr. Saunders goes on to remark, "the first notice of this bird's occurrence in Spain at all, occurs in 'Naumannia, 1882,' translated in 'Bree's Birds of Europe,' vol. i., pp. 133-5."— (Ibis, 1871, p. 65.) This bird does not appear to be common anywhere, except on the Zambesi region of eastern tropical Africa, where Dr. John Kirk says, "It is a common Owl in the clumps of trees bordering the valley over the grass plains near which it hunts during the dark of evening in search of small animals." — (Ibis, 1864, p. 317.) Mr. Layard says of it in South Africa, " Rare, and only found in marshy places, usually gregarious. It conceals itself during the day amongst long grass or reeds, etc. It preys upon water insects, mice, and lizards. Dr. Smith gives no locality for this bird, which must be very scarce, as no specimen has ever fallen under my observation from any part of the colony. Mr. Gurney includes it in his list of birds procured at Natal, by Mr. Ayres, Ibis, 1862."— From "Birds of South Africa," page 43. Subsequently however, writing in the Ibis for 1869, on "South African Ornithology," Mr. Layard says, "I met with several of Otus