Northern Saw-whet Owl
Aegolius acadicus (Gmelin, JF, 1788)
Photo © Scorpion0422 at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
STATUS
North America and Mexico. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
Species not admitted nationally (BOU 1971).
NOT PROVEN
0). c. 1860 Yorkshire Near Beverley, shot, undated.
(W. M. E. Milner, Zoologist 1860: 7104).
[Yarrell, 1871-85; BOU, 1971].
History W. M. E. Milner (1860) in The Zoologist (1st series) Vol. XVIII, p. 7104, says: 'I do not recollect ever mentioning to you for insertion in the Zoologist an account of my having received from a young clergyman, a son of Mr. Bury, who has the church at Osberton (my brother-in-law Mr. Foljambe's place), who, knowing I had a very fine collection of British birds, sent me a small owl in a very curious case, which was shot in the East Riding of Yorkshire, not far from Beverley, by a keeper, a brother of Sir Thomas Whichcote's keeper, of Asworley, Lincolnshire. He sent this bird to his brother, who gave it to Mr. Bury, from whom I received it. I found out afterwards, from looking at Audubon's 'Birds of America,' that it was the sparrow owl (Strix acadica), which is rather common in some parts of America, but totally unknown in this country.'
Yarrell (1871 (1): 157, 4th ed.) in a footer, says: 'The late Sir William Milner recorded (Zool. p. 7104) the supposed occurrence, near Beverley in Yorkshire, of another allied American species, the N. acadica.
Comment With no particular date this record is not worthy of a scientific record.
