256 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS 



CASE 55. 



THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 



Order, Striges. Family, Strigidcr. 



The two handsome specimens in the case, which 

 are in excellent feather, were shot in late autumn, 

 when I was out after Grouse with a keeper on a 

 shooting my brother-in-law held for some years in 

 Radnorshire. They were flushed from heather not 

 far from each other — on a mountain about 1,000 feet 

 above sea-level, and had evidently only just come in 

 from the Continent. This species — amongst sports- 

 men — is often called the Woodcock Owl, this is 

 owing, Howard Saunders says, "to the fact that 

 large numbers arrive regularly from the Continent in 

 autumn and remain for the winter," also to its being 

 "frequently flushed by sportsmen," and lastly, to 

 "the coincidence of the time of its appearance and 

 its twisting flight." Its habitat is usually to be 

 found on high moorlands, heather, etc., but Howard 

 Saunders also gives "fens, furze on hills, and more 

 or less damp places." This bird is not an arboreal 

 species like the Long- Eared Owl, but rather prefers 

 tufts of heather in which to make its nest ; and I 

 may say that I once found a nest of this species in a 

 bank of heather in one of the islands of the Outer 

 Hebrides. I stayed by it some little time to watch 

 the parent birds ; it was interesting to see their 

 excitement and resentment at what they considered 

 my intrusion upon their domain. As I did not leave 



