SHORT-EARED OWL. 24I 



habits. It is a fairly common winter visitor to the 

 moors and marshy districts of the British Isles, arriv- 

 ing in October about the same time as the Woodcock 

 and frequenting the same haunts, from which it gets 

 the name of "Woodcock Owl". A few pairs, how- 

 ever, are still resident in the country and breed in the 

 marshes and fens of the eastern counties. 



This bird seems little troubled by the sunlight, and 

 is often seen by day. From its small head and from 

 the manner in which it quarters the ground for its 

 prey it is frequently — though erroneously — called the 

 Hawk Owl ; this name properly belonging to another 

 bird mentioned afterwards of the same family. Its 

 favourite food is mice and small rats ; it also consumes 

 beetles, small birds and fish that can be caught on the 

 surface. 



The Short-eared Owl must not be looked for in the 

 woods and copses, for it rarely, if ever, visits these. 

 Its haunts are the open fields and furze plantations, 

 the barren moors of the north or the fen districts of 

 the east. 



The most interesting feature in connection with this 

 bird is that in this open country the bird rears its 

 young ; not in any hole of a tree or sheltered by thick 

 foliage, but in an open nest and fully exposed on the 

 ground. There is scarcely any nest; just a few reeds 

 scraped together perhaps in a slight dip in the ground 

 are all that this bird deems necessary to receive the 

 eggs. As we mentioned above, the nest when of late 

 years observed in England has generally been found 

 in the marshes which abound in these reeds. 



The eggs are usually six or seven in number, some- 

 times as few as four ; and like all the Owls' eggs, pure 

 white. They are about the same size as those of the 



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