338 Raptorial Birds of the Solway Area. 



The Short-Eared Owl. 



The status of this species in normal circumstances is that 

 only a pair or two remain to breed with us. Still, they are 

 always present. It must not be forgotten that almost the first 

 good account of the breeding of the Short-eared Owl in Great 

 Britain was given by Sir William Jardine from observations made 

 at the head of the Water of Uryfe, almost 70 years ago. The 

 vole plague of 1875-76 saw a big movement of these Owls, and 

 they were accompanied by Rough-legged Buzzards, while the 

 plague of 1890 and subsequent years brought an altogether 

 marvellous immigration. In Dumfriesshire alone not less than 

 500 pairs of breeding birds were estimated as present. Probably 

 there were three or four times that number on the vole-infested 

 farms. I have elsewhere told how these grand birds commenced 

 to nest in February, and continued nesting without intermission 

 till September; how 10 and 12 eggs were the usual number in a 

 clutch; and with what avidity and untiring vigilance the voles 

 were pursued during every one of the hours of day and night. 

 It was a never-to-be-forgotten experience to see on mile after 

 mile of the moorlands always a dozen or more of them in sight at 

 once. One farmer of my acquaintance counted 36 sitting in a 

 row on a hillock in Carsphairn on a summer afternoon. The 

 finest sight of all was when at midsummer of 1892 I had a 

 chance of going along the hills at midnight. The night was 

 bright and clear, and very still. The Owls were on all sides, 

 flying like no other birds I ever saw. The voles were scurrying 

 hither and thither, squeaking and rustling as one stepped over 

 and amongst them. The unfeathered owlets had left their nests, 

 and were sitting blinking their eyes and contorting their bodies in 

 groups on almost every little hillock. The parents never troubled 

 to alight amongst their offspring — they simply flew past, and 

 flung the dead voles at their young in the byegoing. It was a 

 weird and impressive bit of bird life, one my poor powers of 

 description cannot do justice to. 



As vou may remember, the great vole plague came to a very 

 sudden termination, and the destroying angels in the shape of 

 Short-eared Owls died too in hundreds, being picked up every- 

 where in the last stages of emaciation. " Died of hunger " was 

 the general verdict, but I believe this was quite wrong. Died of 



