1917. BuRKiTT. — Note on the Long-eared Owl. 161 



NOTE ON THE LONG-EARED OWL. 



BY J. P. BURKITT. 



My friend, C. V. Stoney, once used to me the expression 

 that the Long-Eared Owl was an uncertain nester, and 

 observations of mine corroborate that to an only too 

 aggravating degree. I had planned this year to make 

 continued observations of these birds throughout the mating 

 season, and formulate relations between their evening 

 practices and their nesting, including the incubation of 

 the male, and to follow up their habits with their young. 

 This note is one of failure. But failure is sometimes 

 instructive. Others may have very much easier chances 

 of observation than I had. 



I began on the 17th February to watch a pair in a small 

 planting, who had raised a brood the previous year, having 

 had goodsized young on the 8th April. The old nest was 

 gone to pieces (a young skeleton on the ground below), 

 so a new nest had to be watched for. Each evening watch 

 means about i to i|- hours. After eleven watches I found 

 on March 29th one eo^g in what I had diagnosed since the 

 20th to be the selected nest. Thereafter up to April 4th 

 the birds were about the nest at dusk, but on the 12th 

 I found still only the one eg^, and bedded round in snow. 

 And on subsequent evening watches there was no further 

 sign of the parents I took the egg on the 24th April, 

 and found it cracked. 



I do not think the birds were disturbed by my one 

 climb to the nest (in daytime) and they kept about it for 

 at least a week later. So I do not know what bad luck 

 happened. We had snow and frost from the 8th to 12th 

 April, with a very severe frost on the night of the loth. 

 I then, from April 12th, located and took on another 

 pair in a larger plantation some miles awa}^ This pair 

 as events proved had not yet nested. I had to pay about 

 a dozen evening visits before the misleading female gave 

 clear indication of the nest she was going to occup\^ and 

 that was on the nth May. From then till the 17th she 



