2 8 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



Cork," and the author distinguishes the sexes, 

 describing one as brown and the other grey. The 

 Tawny Owl is also recorded by Mr. R. J. Mont- 

 gomery to have been received by him from Queen's 

 County (Zool., 1848, p. 2141), a fact apparently 

 overlooked by Mr. A. G. More when preparing his 

 "List of Irish Birds" in 1885. 



This species nests earlier than either the Barn 

 Owl, or the Short-eared Owl. Even as far north 

 as Yorkshire eggs are often laid during the third 

 week in March. Two or three instances are re- 

 corded in which these birds have built their nests 

 on the ground ; one of them, in Co. Durham, in April 

 1874, occupied the same spot in which a pheasant 

 had nested the previous year, and was found sitting 

 on three eggs ; another nest was found on the top of 

 a heap of fir-needles at the foot of a fir tree. 



Prof. Newton is of opinion that the Tawny 

 Owl is the type of the genus Strix of Linnaeus, 

 being his Strix aluco, and that the Barn Owl 

 should stand as Aluco Jiammeus (Linnaeus). See 

 Yarrell's "Hist. Brit. Birds," 4th ed. vol. i. p. 146. 



Mr. Herbert Playne has given an interesting 

 account of a Tawny Owl which he tamed, and 

 which would fly in and out of his bedroom window 

 (Zool, 1892, p. 444). 



LONG-EARED OWL. Asio otus (Linnffius). PI 4, fig. 1. 

 Length, 14-5 in.; wing, 12 in. ; tarsus, 1-5 in. 



Resident, chiefly in wooded districts of the north 

 and east of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Mr. 



