SHORT-EARED OWL. 69 



southern continent of America at the Falkland Islands. It is 

 likewise spread through every part of Europe, and is common 

 in all the forests of Siberia ; it also visits the Orkney Islands 

 and Iceland, and we have observed it at Atooi, one of the 

 Sandwich Islands, in the Pacific, as well as in the territory of 

 Oregon. In England it appears and disappears with the mi- 

 grations of the Woodcock. Its food is almost exclusively mice, 

 for which it watches, seated on a stump, with all the vigilance 

 of a cat, listening attentively to the low squeak of its prey, 

 to which it is so much alive as to be sometimes brought in 

 sight by imitating the sound. It is readily attracted by the 

 blaze of nocturnal fires, and on such occasions has sometimes 

 had the blind temerity to attack men, and come so close to 

 combat as to be knocked down with sticks. When wounded 

 it also displays the same courageous ferocity, so as to be 

 dangerous to approach. In dark and cloudy weather it some- 

 times ventures abroad by daylight, takes short flights, and 

 when sitting and looking sharply round, it erects the short, ear- 

 like tufts of feathers on the head which are at other times 

 scarcely visible. Like all other migrating birds, roving indif- 

 ferently over the country in quest of food alone, these Owls 

 have sometimes been seen in considerable numbers together ; 

 Bewick even remarks that 28 of them had been counted at 

 once in a turnip-field in England. They are also numerous in 

 Holland in the months of September and October, and in all 

 countries are serviceable for the destruction they make among 

 house and field mice, their principal food. Although they 

 usually breed in high ground, they have also been observed in 

 Europe to nest in marshes, in the middle of the high herbage, 

 — a situation chosen both for safety and solitude. 



This is one of the commonest of the New England Owls, and 

 breeds in all the suitable marsh land along the coast. It ranges 

 north to the fur countries, south to the Gulf States and beyond, 

 and west to the Pacific. 



