SYRNIUM ALUCO. 177 



[^ 584. Tkree.—Eheden, 4 April, 1857. "E. N."] 

 [§ 585. Four.—nveden, 5 April, 1859. "A. & E. N." 



The eggs mentioned in this and the preceding six sections were all, I believe, 

 the produce of the same pair of birds, which to my own knowledge from 1844, 

 and probably for a much longer time, had frequented some clumps of old 

 elms near the house at Elveden. There were three of these clumps, in one or 

 the other of which they invariably laid their eggs. The trees were of con- 

 sidei'able age, and mostly quite hollow, -with an abundance of convenient nest- 

 ing-places. By waiting quietly about an hour after sunset, my brother Edward 

 or myself could generally discover whereabouts the Owls had taken up their 

 quarters for the season ; but it sometimes happened that we did not find the 

 nest until the young were hatched. Throughout the winter the Owls kept 

 pretty much in company ; but towards the middle of February they used to 

 separate, the cock bird often passing the day in a tree at some distance from 

 where the hen was. As soon as he came out in the evening to hunt, he 

 announced his presence by a vigorous hoot. Upon this the hen would emerge 

 silently, and, after a short flight, would reply to her mate's summons by a 

 gentle note. He then generally joined her, and they would fly off' together 

 to procure their living. The eggs were commonly laid about the second week 

 in March, and the nests were almost always very accessible. I never knew 

 these birds occupy the same hole in two successive years ; but, after the interval 

 of two or three years, they would return to the same spot. There were never 

 any materials collected to form a nest, the eggs being always placed on the 

 rotten wood, which in most cases formed a sufficient bedding. If all the eggs 

 were taken, as was the case in 1854, the hen bird laid again in another tree. 

 We never found more than four eggs in the nest. These often, but not always, 

 proved to have been incubated for different lengths of time, showing that the 

 hen bii-d sometimes began to sit as soon as the first egg was laid ; but we could 

 never divine what might be the cause of this irregularity of habit. After the 

 young birds had left the nest, it was some time before they began to shift for 

 themselves j and they used to sit in the shadiest trees for the best part of the 

 summer, uttering a plaintive note, like " keewick," night and day, almost 

 without cessation, to attract the attention of their parents, who would assidu- 

 ously bring them the spoils of the chase. In 1851, two nestlings from this 

 pair of Owls were sent by us to the Gardens of the Zoological Societj^, where 

 they lived for more than ten years, and duly assumed the perfectly adult state 

 of plumage so rarely seen among British specimens of the Tawny Owl. Late 

 in the spring of 1859, to the gi'eat regret of those who knew them, the old 

 birds suddenly disappeared, and I never succeeded in ascertaining their fate. I 

 think it due to their memory to insert this account of their habits, the more 

 so as I fear the species is daily becoming more uncommon in England.] 



