Northern Observations of Inland Birds 63 



whole of the time by throwing clods of earth at the birds 

 and at me ! Here, then, was an example of the gregarious 

 habits of the short-eared owl, if not of its sociability. 



In July, 1919, near the sea in Kirkcudbrightshire, I 

 was surprised to see one of these birds circling like a 

 buzzard in broad daylight at a height of about two hundred 

 feet from the ground. 



The short-eared owl would undoubtedly be very 

 destructive to game preservation but that its great numbers 

 are absent from these shores at the time of the year 

 when young birds are about. It is a very prolific owl, 

 and lays normally about seven eggs. During spells of 

 periodic increase, however, mention of which is made 

 later, it may produce as many as ten or twelve eggs, the 

 size of the clutch seeming to be entirely governed by the 

 abundance or otherwise of food. This condition of things 

 applies in the case of most wild birds and beasts — and a 

 wise condition, too, on Dame Nature's part, for the 

 abundance or otherwise of food decides the number of 

 young the parents are able to maintain. 



One cannot make reference to this bird, the short-eared 

 owl, without mention of its mysterious migrations to 

 localities where food is most abundant. During the 

 Border vole plague, already referred to, short-eared owls 

 coming evidently from overseas, flocked in hundreds to feed 

 on the voles. What guides these birds on such occasions 

 is, of course, one of those mysteries of nature we cannot 

 solve, but it is during such times of plenty that the 

 periodic increase takes place, the owls in the vicinity 

 producing enormous clutches, and so, themselves, similarly 

 increasing — rising, as it were, to the occasion. It is thus 

 that Nature strives to regain her balance from the 

 abnormal. 



The vole plague of the Border country and the subse- 

 quent influx of owls was by no means unprecedented. 



