118 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



Jones, but the mosses in the vicinity of the Eibl)le 

 estuary are the stronghold of the Short-eared Owl in the 

 breeding-season. Here, among the heather, it nests 

 annually, and in 1883, Mr. John Sumner tells me he 

 saw in the middle of May a nest with six eggs, and 

 about the first week in June one with six young. Mr. 

 K. J. Howard writes me that on the Scarisbrick estate 

 it breeds occasionally, and that in winter as many as 

 twenty may be flushed from a single field, generally one 

 of rough grass or turnips. Its services in clearing oft' 

 the field-mice are gratefull}- recognized by the farmers, 

 but the fenmen are much troubled by its practice of 

 carrying off the Snipes and Larks which are caught in 

 their panties and other snares. 



GENUS SYENIUM. 



TAWNY OWL. 



Syrnium aluco (Linnseus). 



Local Names — Wood-Owl, Brown Hnllet. 



Kesident, but decreasing, and now confined to a few 

 thickly-wooded districts, the neighbourhood of a river 

 being especially preferred. From the southern division 

 of the county I have no records whatever, but up the 

 Kibble, Hodder, and Calder, and in Wyresdale a few 

 pairs breed here and there every year, and in Furness 

 also, according to Mr. W. A. Durnford, it is resident, 

 but not numerous. Writing in the Macj. of Nat. Hist., 

 1838, Dr. Skaife says that it has become rather scarce, 

 and that he learns from the gamekeepers, then their 

 bitterest persecutors, that within a few years they were 

 very numerous in the woods towards the Eibble. If 



