The Little Owl in Gould's day was only an occasional visitor to Britain, although common in mainland Europe, where it lived 'in old ruins, church steeples, and other lofty buildings'. It flew at dusk and its cry was so eerie that the superstitious regarded it as a bird of ill-omen. Gould scorned such notions and hoped the owl would be more frequently seen in England. The species was introduced to Britain in the late nineteenth century and it rapidly became widespread.

The adult bird is depicted life-size, with its prey of a short-tailed field mouse to feed its young in a tree hole. In the background a shadowy wren creeps among the ivy.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds throughout much of Eurasia and parts of north African region, between about 57°N and 8°N. Mainly sedentary but some short distance wanderings. Previously a rare vagrant, the Little Owl was introduced to Britain in the 1870s and 1880s and with further releases spread rapidly and now breeds in England and Wales and parts of Scotland