Mottled Owl
Strix virgata (Cassin, 1849)
Photo © By Dominic Sherony - Mottled Owl (Ciccaba virgata)Uploaded by Magnus Manske, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21239289
STATUS
Latin America. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
Species not admitted by the BOU (1971).
NOT PROVEN
0). 1852 Yorkshire Hawksworth Wood, Leeds, shot, summer.
("B.R.M." Morris and Bree's Naturalist 5: 167; R. Hobson, Morris and Bree's Naturalist 5: 169-172; Morris, 1856-62; Yarrell, 1856; Stevenson, 1866; Clarke & Roebuck, 1881).
[Not in BOU, 1971]
History "B.R.M." (1855) in Morris and Bree's Naturalist, Vol. V, p. 167, says: 'We have just received from our valued friend, R. Hobson, Esq., M.D., of Leeds, notice of the occurrence, near Leeds, of a female specimen of the American Mottled Owl, Audubon. We hope to give the full particulars in our next.'
R. Hobson of Leeds (1855) in Morris and Bree's Naturalist, Vol. V, pp. 169-172, dated 6th July 1855, says: 'In accordance with your request, I at once set to work to endeavour to authenticate the fact of a "Mottled Owl" being killed in Yorkshire, which Owl is now in my possession. The Owl in question is in its grey plumage; and was shot by Joseph Owen, who then did, and still continues to, reside at Kirkstall (I have had a letter from Owen's employer, Mr. Ambrose Butler, who says, "You ? ? Owen's having shot the bird." - R.H.) It was killed in the breeding season of 1852, in Hawksworth cover, the property of Lord Cardigan, half a mile above Kirkstall Abbey, on the banks of the river Aire, about four miles west of Leeds. At that period, there were a pair of owls; and, as far as Joseph Owen could judge by moonlight, they appeared to be similar in size, colour and flight. He at once saw that these birds differed materially from our common Screech Owl, and was therefore extremely anxious to secure them; and, having shot one, he went to their haunt, night after night, to obtain the remaining one; but this he unfortunately never could accomplish. Several other parties saw the remaining bird, and frequently called on Owen to desire him to go up to shoot it. From that period, however, it has not been seen. Owen, ignorant of the value of his treasure, gave this Owl, in the flesh, to a bird-stuffer in Leeds, called Matthew Smith; who immediately put it up, under the impression that it was a "Scops-eared Owl;" and, under the same error in judgment, and, I may add, obstinate conviction, sold it to me. On his delivering it at my house, there happened to be present two excellent ornithologists, - Mr. Denny, the talented Curator of the Leeds Philosophical Hall, and Mr. Graham, of York, far-famed in ornithological pursuits. The moment that Graham's keen eye caught a glimpse of the bird, he - in not a very conciliatory tone, I admit - cried out to the vendor, "That's not a Scops-eared Owl;" when Mr. Smith, with still less of the suaviter in modo, replied, "But I say it is a Scops-eared Owl." My good friend Mr. Waterton's words, which he had often expressed to me previously - "We bird-stuffers are a most pugnacious tribe" - were in vivid view; and I therefore appealed to Mr. Denny, who unhesitatingly pronounced it the "Mottled Owl." Mr. Smith, however, stuck with, if possible, increased pertinacity to his text; until I produced Catesby and Wilson, both having figured the Mottled Owl in its different plumage, but under different names; viz., the Red, and the Mottled Owl; when he then, after Hudibras's fashion - " Convince a man against his will," &c. - reluctantly yielded. Mr. Denny afterwards laid a Scops-eared Owl on the table; which, by comparison, at once settled the dispute beyond a shadow of doubt....'
Morris (1856 (1): 170, reissue) says: 'A single specimen has occurred in this country. It was shot in Hawksworth Wood, the property of Lord Cardigan, on the banks of the River Aire, near Kirkstall, Yorkshire, in the spring of the year 1852. There was another with it at the time, and no doubt, from the season of the year, they had been building, or would have built; but every rare bird is so hunted, as the saying is, 'from pillar to post,' that there is small chance of any increase of family. Richard Hobson, Esq., M.D., of Leeds, an excellent and most acute naturalist, recorded the fact, with full particulars, in my magazine, the Naturalist, August, 1855.'
Clarke & Roebuck (1881: 2) who say: 'Leeds, one shot in Hawksworth Wood, summer of 1852 (Hobson, Nat., 1855, p. 169 and plate). This I believe to be a genuine occurrence.'
0). Pre 1866 Norfolk Near Great Yarmouth, killed, no date.
(Stevenson, 1866).
[BOU, 1971].
History Stevenson (1866 (1): 4) says: 'This small North American species was first included amongst the accidental visitants to this country, by the late Mr. Yarrell, in the third edition of his British Birds, in which will be found the notice of a specimen shot in the neighbourhood of Leeds in 1852, and of which a figure and description were given in the Naturalist for the same year (p. 169). Mr. Gurney informs me that some years back he purchased from the late Mr. Thurtell, then a nurseryman, at Eaton, (when selling off his collection of Norfolk Birds), an adult specimen of this rare owl, said to have been killed near Yarmouth, but till then supposed to be only an European Scops Owl. This bird was unfortunately destroyed after it came into Mr. Gurney's possession.'
