EGGS OF BRITISH! BIRDS. 23 



land Isles. It also breeds in Mull and Skye. It is distributed 

 throughout the Palaearctic Region, and becomes rarer towards 

 the Arctic Circle. It is also found in the Himalayas. 



The Long-eared Owl is an early breeder : fresh eggs may be 

 obtained by the second week in March ; and the young are 

 hatched by the end of April or beginning of May. It is doubtful 

 if this bird ever builds its own nest. It usually takes possession 

 of a deserted Crow's nest, sometimes a Wood-Pigeon's, and more 

 frequently the deserted "drey" of a squirrel. 



The selected nest does not appear to undergo much alteration, 

 although many naturalists have asserted that it is lined with wool 

 and feathers ; but pellets are often found in it in great numbers. 

 The eggs of this bird are from four to seven in number, generally 

 five or six ; and it appears that, as is the case with many other 

 birds of this family, the eggs are sat on as soon as laid, as young 

 birds and fresh eggs are seen in the same nest. The eggs of the 

 Long-eared Owl are somewhat oval in form, possessing some 

 little gloss, and are pure white in colour. They measure from 

 1*76 to 1"5 inch in length, and from 135 to 1'26 inch in breadth. 



THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 



(Asio brachyotus.)* 



Plate 6, Fig. 1. 



The Short-eared Owl is generally distributed on moorlands and 

 marshes in the north of England, Scotland, the Western Isles, 

 the Orkneys, and the Shetlands. Outside our islands its range is 

 almost cosmopolitan. 



Unlike the other British members of this group of birds that 

 seek a covered site for their nests, the Short-eared Owl always 

 rears its young upon the ground, and, most curiously enough, in 

 an exposed and open nest. Its breeding-grounds are the marshy 

 fens of the low-lying eastern counties, and in the north the broad 

 expanses of heath on which the Harriers and the Grouse rear 

 their young. 



This species lays from four to seven eggs ; and has been said, 

 on the authority of Hutchins, cited by Richardson in the ' Fur- 

 countries of North America,' to lay as many as ten or twelve. 



* Strix brachyotus— Seebohm, Brit. B., I., p. 167 (1883). 



