STRIGID.E. 



295 



THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 



Asio ACCiPiTRiNUS (Pallas). 



Unlike the preceding arboreal species, the Short-eared Owl is an 

 inhabitant of the open country, especially upland moors, fens, heather 

 or furze-covered hillsides, and more or less damp places ; while in 

 the latter part of the year it is often met with in turnip-fields and 

 stubbles. Owing to the fact that large numbers arrive regularly from 

 the Continent in autumn, and remain for the winter, this bird is 

 frequently flushed by sportsmen, and is often called the Wood- 

 cock-Owl, from the coincidence of the time of its appearance, and, 

 perhaps, from its twisting flight ; in some years it is much more 

 plentiful than in others. Normally, it may be said that a few pairs 

 nest in the south-west of England, as well as in Whales, while, in 

 spite of drainage, some breed in East Anglia, and more freely on 

 the moorlands northward. At long intervals, however, coincidently 

 with irruptions of field-voles, Short-eared Owls flock to the infested 

 spots, where they remain as long as food continues plentiful. This 

 was notable during the plague of short-tailed voles in the south- 

 west of Scotland in 1S90-1891, when a wonderful increase was 

 noticed, not only in the breeding birds, estimated at four hundred 

 pairs, but also in the abnormal number of eggs laid. Under ordinary 

 conditions the species nests in the Inner and Outer Hebrides, as 

 well as in the Orkneys, and sometimes the Shetlands. In Ireland 

 the Short-eared Owl has not yet been recorded as breeding, but it 

 is as common there in winter as it is in the rest of the United 

 Kina:dom. 



