TAWNY OWL 273 



Genus SYRNIUM, Savigny. 

 Ti^WNY OWL. 



Syrnium aluco (Linnasus). 8.N.^ i., p. 13-2 (1766). 

 Wood-Owl, Brown Owl and Ivy-Owl. 



The Tawny Owl is rather more numerous than either 

 of the preceding species in Kent, and it breeds in the 

 more secluded old woods and private plantations. 



In June, 1874, one of these birds was caught at Boxley 

 Abbey in a trap baited with part of a rabbit supposed 

 to have been killed by a cat. It was a large bird and 

 probably a female. There is a female in the Maidstone 

 Museum obtained on September 2, 1892, by Colonel 

 Franklyn, at Hollingbourne, and a male shot at Harriet- 

 sham on April 26, 1894, by Mr. H. Elgar. 



It has been observed in the Orlestone and Kuckinge 

 woodlands several times during the summers of 1902-6. 



Mr. J. F. Green, in his Fauna of the " Cedars," Lee, 

 Kent, says : " The owls are a great institution here, 

 and I love to hear them. In June and July the young 

 of the Brown Owls seem to call for food all night — a 

 quick too-whit. The old birds give a very long-drawn- 

 out whistle, on a descending scale, followed by the 

 same note in tremolo, like a child in distress. Our 

 watchman sometimes sees them dive into the ivy after 

 the roosting sparrows which swarm here." 



Mr. E. J. Balston states that "a pair used to breed 

 in an old tree in the Park at Clare House, Mailing, 

 1878-81. They are also heard frequently in the summer 

 at Springfield, in the outskirts of Maidstone. 

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