LONG-EARED OWL. 163 
rotten eggs in it upon the Ist April 1871. On the same day we took 
seven other nests with eggs.’ This Owl seems always to make use of the 
old nests of either Carrion-Crow, Wood-Pigeon, or Magpie, and never, 
so far as I have been able to discover, builds a wholly new nest for itself, 
being content with repairing the other nests—if a Crow or a Magpie’s be 
the one selected, by flattening them down a little, and sometimes by the 
addition of a few sticks to an old Wood-Pigeon’s when the original struc- 
ture was too slight. They are very early breeders, eggs being sometimes 
found when snow is still upon the ground. The earliest eggs I have known 
were taken the last week in February; but the usual time of laying is 
from the beginning of March until the first week in April. The bird, when 
incubation has commenced, sits very closely indeed, often not leaving the 
nest until the climber is within 6 or 8 feet of it. This makes the taking of 
their eggs very hard work, as any old nest may contain eggs; and as no 
amount of knocking the trunk below, or firing of missiles at the nest above, 
is certain to start the Owl if there, there is nothing for it but climbing 
every tree that holds an old nest that looks likely; and as these firs usually 
have a vast number of old nests of one sort or another in them, the work 
soon becomes very hard, and (unless successful early on) an enthusiastic 
oologist of not too mature an age is necessary, or the abandonment of the 
search in disgust is more than probable. There seems to be no fixed 
height for the nest preferred; the lowest I have seen was some 12 feet 
above the ground, and the highest some 40 or 45 ; but usually 20 to 30 is the 
height ; when the trees become very high, the Owls seem to leave them for 
lower trees with thicker under-branches. The number of eggs laid is from 
three to six; many nests contain four; five is also commonly found, whilst 
a six clutch is not a great rarity. I have known one nest that contained 
six young ones (in various stages of growth), and several with five; but 
such successful hatchings are not common; more frequently three to four 
young ones are found, and often also one or more addled eggs are in the 
nests with the young birds.” 
The Long-eared Owl has the general colour of the upper parts ochraceous 
buff, mottled and vermiculated with brown of various shades ; the ear-tufts 
large, and composed of black feathers edged with buff. The underparts 
are of a lighter ochraceous buff, with broad streaks of deep brown and faint 
transverse bars of paler brown ; beak and claws dark horn-colour ; irides rich 
orange-yellow. The female resembles the male, but is slightly more 
rufous in general coloration. 
