SHORT-EARED OWL. 295 



have seen it, a mere speck in the sky, gradually float down, 

 UP moved by the angry mobbing of a Rook and Daw, and 

 when near the earth suddenly shoot with half-closed wings and 

 skim out of sight just above the hedgerows. It is in these 

 skimming descents, no doubt, that it is captured in the flight 

 nets on the coast. 



The food— small mammals, birds and beetles — does not 

 difter from that of other owls, but it is evidently partial to 

 voles, for during the over-abundance of these destructive 

 rodents, known as "vole-plagues," there is always a great 

 increase of Short-eared Owls, nature's most effective method 

 of reducing their numbers. On migration it feeds upon other 

 avian travellers, capturing them as they fly on misty nights in 

 the glare from the lighthouses. 



The nest, always on the ground, may have a little lining, but 

 this is usually the trodden vegetation ; it is amongst the heather 

 on the moors, reeds or sedges in the fens, between or even on 

 the tussocks of a marsh, or on the sand amidst the marram of 

 the dunes. Four to eight white eggs, laid at intervals (Plate 116), 

 are the usual complement, but when voles devastated the sheep- 

 runs of the Scottish lowlands, so many as thirteen or fourteen 

 were found in one nest, and most birds had two or more broods. 

 Nests were also found so early as February, though April is 

 the usual time for laying. The young are at first covered with 

 dirty white down, this appearance being caused by the white 

 tips above sooty or barred bases ; the legs, down clad, show- 

 dull yellow, the bill is leaden and the irides pale yellow. When 

 the young bird is feathered it will if threatened assume the 

 terrifying attitude of the Long-eared Owl, framing its head 

 with the wings ; its now bright yellow eyes glare defiance ; it 

 hisses and snaps its bill, and will even jump towards the 

 intruder. The old birds, if the young is touched, will dash at 

 and occasionally strike a man. 



The general colour of the adult bird is dark buff, though the 



