A catalogue of birds, observed in south-eastern Durham, and in north-western Cleveland : with an appendix, containing the classification and nomenclature of all the species included therein / by John Hogg.

  • John Hogg
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A catalogue of birds, observed in south-eastern Durham, and in north-western Cleveland : with an appendix, containing the classification and nomenclature of all the species included therein / by John Hogg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    over the fields, like a hound in search of game; or it is a corruption of harrower, from the verb harrow, to pillage, sti’ip, or tear up; or from the Scotch word harry, which is derived from the old French harer, to rob. It is worthy of remark, that the head of the female (the ringtail) resembles, more perhaps than any of our other buzzards, that of an owl, having much the same disk of circularly disposed feathers on each side of the head. 16. Montagu’s Harrier, Circus Montagui. “ A pair of these birds was shot near Guisborough. They are now in the collection of Mr. C. Newby, at Stockton.”—J. G. 17. Scops Eared Owl, Scops Aldrovandi. This very rare and migra- tory species was recorded by me, from the information of Mr. Winch, as having been known to breed in Castle Eden Dene, (see Appendix Hist. Stock, p. 4). Scops, or Exui]/, is evidently derived from axia, and co-^, i. e. the power of seeing in the shade or dark. The old writers named the appendages on the head, horns in the Bubo and Scops, and ears in the two species of Otus. 18. Long-eared Owl, Otus vulgaris. By no means common just | here : but it frequents the more wooded places, and lives chiefly in old jii trees. Mr. J. Grey has a well-stuffed individual, which was shot in the Wjmyard woods. 19. Short-eared Owl, Woodcock Owl, Otus hrachyotos. It has re- ceived its latter trivial name with us in the north of England, because it appears there about the 20th of October, the period of the arrival of the woodcock; and is supposed to migrate, like it, from Norway, and other parts of Scandinavia. It inhabits thick grass, whins and hedges in fields, and remains the whole winter, preying chiefly on field-mice and rats. It is a handsome bird, and rather tame. 20. Barn Owl, Stria: Jlammea. The facial disk in the present bird is large and strongly marked. This, together with the height of brow projecting above the eyes, gives to most of the owls a very solemn, sagacious and intelligent aspect, and has therefore caused them to be considered as the birds of wisdom, and to have been held, from a ver^ early period by the Athenians, as sacred to Minerva, and the emblem of their own city, and which they placed upon their coins, sculptures and paintings. The barn-owl is a widely distributed species, being ! found in America and throughout Africa: it appears frequently in tht painted hieroglyphics and sculptures of Egypt. 21. Tawny Owl, Syrnium. stridiilum. The preceding and this spe cies do great service to the farmer in clearing his fields of the Murida and Castorida).