NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 133 



in my Egg-book, was the noisier of the two. The cock is by- 

 no means easy to get at the nest, rarely venturing within shot, 

 while the hen is almost certain to come, but he appears, however, 

 to roost near it, and by stalking may be got. In May, 1879, I 

 went up to a shepherd's house for a night, with a friend who was 

 anxious to get a nest, and the old birds, if possible ; the hen was 

 shot at once, and we set a trap in the nest for the cock, which we 

 saw at a distance. A shepherd who went out late to look at the 

 trap found the cock sitting near, but not on the nest, and it 

 allowed him to approach pretty close, so my friend went out and 

 returned with the bird. Except at the breeding season the old 

 male seems to be rarely seen, whereas females and young birds are 

 very common. I never saw it mentioned in any work on Natural 

 History, but keepers have a theory that Hen-Harriers, and Merlins, 

 almost invariably have their nests facing the north, and it is 

 generally the case, as I have often proved since.* In one nest of 

 the Hen-Harrier's that I took in 1879, one egg had been sucked, and 

 another rolled out of the nest, by a Hoodie Crow, apparently, which 

 we saw sitting on a rock not far off. 



13. Tawny Owl. Strix stridula, Lin. — Breeds near Rosehall, 

 where I have often heard it. From one hollow tree, the only one 

 on the place that I was then occupying, I have twice taken the 

 eggs, although I never saw the bird, the reason being that on one 

 occasion my man, seeing the owl come out of the hole, hit it on the 

 back with a stick. After such treatment it naturally deserted ; this 

 was in 1875. In 1877 the bird again laid in the same place; this 

 time one of my setters put his head into the hole and so frightened 

 the bird that she again deserted ; there was, however, no doubt of its 

 being the nest of the Tawny Owl. The species would breed, I am 

 sure, much more frequently were there more hollow trees for its 

 accommodation. A female that I got in Sutherland was trapped, the 

 bait being the inside of a rabbit ; it was one of a pair that used to 

 breed near Balnacoil, where I was then living. A shepherd told me 



* Of four nests known to me in the West of Sutherland, three of which I hare 

 visited myself, one faces the north, and is placed in old, deep, rank heather ; 

 one faces the east, and is placed on almost perfectly bare ground, and a third 

 faces the west, in deep heather by the side of a burn, and is only removed about 

 fifty paces from a Merlin's nest, also facing the west, and on the same side of 

 the burn. These nests are not actually in Sutherland, but are across the 

 Ross-shire march. — J. A. H.-B. 



