FASCICULA 139 



while it was an ascertained fact that some had actually 

 done so. Hancock's recorded instances referred chiefly 

 to North Tyne, where the short-eared owl still nests 

 annually in small numbers. It clings to certain spots 

 (young woods and rough heathery cleughs, as well as 

 on the open moor), where I have frequently sprung 

 these owls from the ground during the spring months. 

 With setters, a nest or two could be found within a 

 couple of hours any year ; but the evidence suffices as 

 it stands, and I am loth to push it to full proof; for 

 needless disturbance of scarce birds should be avoided, 

 lest it give offence. The same remarks apply equally in 

 the cases of the water-rail and spotted crake, above 

 mentioned. 



Any doubts, moreover, have been set at rest by the 

 events of the early nineties. At that date, there 

 occurred throughout the south of Scotland, a "vole- 

 plague." The destructive little rodents swarmed in 

 millions, and following them appeared, as by magic, 

 an attendant army of short-eared owls : which so long 

 as this food-supply lasted, remained to nest in the 

 Borderland. 



In 1893, the last expiring ripples of the vole-plague 

 lapped over the Border into Northumberland. We had, 

 that year, the shooting of Ilderton, on Cheviot ; and 

 on that one moor, at least a dozen pairs of owls nested 

 on the open heather. So vigorous had these owls become, 

 through several years of unwonted abundance, that each 

 nest contained families of ten or a dozen, and even more ; 

 these were, moreover, in all stages — from fresh eggs and 

 downy owlets, up to full-feathered fledglings, side by side 

 in the same nest. The old owls might often be seen 

 hunting by clay, sometimes half-a-dozen being in sight 



