HAWK OWL. 185 
cessful marksman to a fresh trial of his skill. The note of this bird was 
compared by Wolley to the cry of a Hawk. 
The breeding-season of the Hawk Owl appears to commence in the 
middle of April, and to last to the end of June. As this bird possesses the 
bit, in common with many of its congeners, of laying eggs at intervals, 
and sitting on them as soon as laid, eggs may be found as late as the 
third week in June. It makes no nest; and the eggs are usually laid in 
the hole of a decayed pine tree, and rest on the powdered wood alone, as 
is the case with the eggs of the Woodpecker*. Collett mentions a nest of 
this Owl in Norway, on the top of a broken pine-trunk, some six feet 
below which a Golden-eye Duck was sitting on her nest. Wolley mentions 
a similar instance in Lapland, as does also Dall in Alaska. This Owl will 
also frequently take possession of the nest-boxes placed by the peasants 
for the Ducks, and rear its young in them. The eggs of the Hawk Owl 
are from five to eight in number, white in colour, smooth, and possess 
considerable gloss. They measure from 1°65 to 1:55 inch in length, and 
from 1:25 to 1:17 inch in breadth. The eggs of the Hawk Owl cannot be 
distinguished from those of the Short-eared Owl, thus rendering an addi- 
tional figure unnecessary. Both birds sit upon the eggs, and are some- 
times found on them in company. While the female is upon her charge 
the male bird will perch close at hand, ready to do battle with any intruder, 
not even excepting man himself. Numerous instances are recorded of 
this bird’s dauntless courage when its nest is assailed. It strikes at the 
intruder again and again, seeming not to care for its own safety, and too 
often pays the price of its temerity with its life. 
The Hawk Owl commences its moult before the young can fly, and 
completes it by the time they are in full feather. Wheelwright asserts 
that the breast and belly of the female in the breeding-season are strongly 
tinged with reddish brown, doubtless from the decaying wood. 
During autumn the Hawk Owl still keeps in company with its young, 
hunting in little parties for food; then they become gipsy migrants, and 
a few wander far south of their native forests. The habits of the American 
variety of the Hawk Owl are not known to differ from those of the Pale- 
arctic species ; and its eggs are undistinguishable. 
The general colour of the upper parts of the Hawk-Owl is blackish 
brown, mottled with dull white; tail barred narrowly and tipped broadly 
with white. Underparts white, barred with dark reddish brown; tarsi 
and toes covered with greyish-white feathers. Bill yellowish white; irides 
straw-yellow; claws bluish black at tips, paler at base. The female bird 
is a little larger than the male. 
* Macfarlane’s account, quoted by Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, of the nest of this bird 
being built of small sticks and twigs in pine trees in Arctic America, is contrary to the 
experience of every other ornithologist who has taken its eggs. 
