4IO OWLS 



Inner Hebrides southwards, it is a remarkable and at present 

 unexplained fact that it is absent from Ireland. It is true that 

 one or two alleged instances of its occurrence in the latter island 

 have been cited, but these are not admitted in the latest work on 

 Irish birds, and, if authentic, refer mercl\' to stragglers. As regards 

 Great Britain, while one authority ' states that it is diminishing in 

 numbers owing to persecution, a second ' observes that it is increasing 

 in many Scottish counties : possibly the discrepancy ma\' be accounted 

 for by the difference in the dates of the two statements. 



The range of the tawnj- owl includes the greater part of Europe, 

 as far north as southern Scandinavia, and about latitude 58 , north 

 Africa, and south-western Asia ; but in the Himalaya and China it 

 is replaced by the nearly related Syrniuui nivicola. 



As its name of wood -owl implies, the species is a denizen of 

 wooded districts, where its wailing hoot often breaks the stillness of 

 the summer night. Thoroughly nocturnal in habits, the tawny owl 

 subsists largely on field-mice and shrew-mice, but varies its diet with 

 frogs and fishes (as does the barn-owl occasionally), and such small birds 

 as it ma)- happen to find roosting. Moreover, in the breeding-season it 

 is reported to take young pheasants and an occasional baby rabbit ; and 

 there is accordingly some justification for the persecution to which it 

 is subjected at the hands of gamekeepers. The clutch of three or four 

 somewhat glossy eggs, each measuring about i£ inches in length, may 

 be laid, sometimes as early as the third week in March, either in a 

 hollow tree, in the deserted nest of a crow or magpie, amid rocks, or, 

 very rarely, on the ground. When the nest is approached, the old 

 birds will make furious dashes at the intruder on their domain. 



Tenffmalm's Although nearly related to the tawny owl, with 



Owl (Nyetala which it agrees in the absence of ear- tufts, the 



teng-malmi) much rarer Tengmalm's owl, which is really only 



a straggler to Great Britain, and quite unknown in 



Ireland, may be at once distinguished by its much smaller size, as it 



measures only 9^ inches in length, against 14 inches in the former. 



It is further characterised by the still greater want of symmetry 



between the size of the openings of the ears on opposite sides of 



the head ; this lack of symmetry extending to the skull, as may be 



demonstrated by feeling the two sides of the head. Here, again, 



we have need of an explanation as to the reason of this strange 



' Sharpe, Handbook to the Birds of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. loi. 

 - Ilartinfj, Handbook of British Birds, p. 27. 



