J 22 STRIGID.E. 



or dense plantations, this bird frequents wide open fields, 

 extensive commons, heaths, and moors. A large proportion 

 of the specimens seen in this country are winter visitors that 

 come from the North of Europe with the first favourable 

 wind in October, and have in consequence been called Wood- 

 cock Owls. There are few sportsmen who have not occa- 

 sionally met with this Owl when Partridge shooting, towards 

 the end of October, either in old grass fields, barley stubbles, 

 or turnips. It lies close, and when obliged to move flies 

 only a short distance, and is very easily obtained. In winter, 

 when the fields are bare, it shelters itself in the bottoms of 

 thick hedge-rows. From its small head and its habit of 

 looking for food during the day, Pallas called this species 

 Strix accipitrina, and Hawk Owl is also a common name 

 for it in this country. Many of those that visit great Bri- 

 tain in the autumn and winter months, retire northward again 

 in the following spring; but some few remain and breed, not 

 only in the Orkneys, in Scotland, and in some of the northern 

 counties of England, but even much farther south than has 

 hitherto been apprehended. 



Mr. Low says it breeds frequently in the island of Hoy, 

 one of the Orkneys, forming an artless nest among the heath. 

 Two young birds, nearly ready to fly, had been supplied by 

 the parent birds with a Moorfowl and two Plovers. Sir 

 William Jardine, in a note to the Short-eared Owl in his 

 edition of Wilson''s American Ornithology, vol. ii. page 63, 

 considers that many are bred on the Scottish moors. In one 

 locality in Dumfriesshire, Sir William found two nests with 

 five eggs. " They were formed upon the ground among the 

 heath ; the bottom of the nest scraped until the fresh earth 

 appeared, on which the eggs were placed, without any lining, 

 or other accessory covering. When approaching the nest or 

 young, the old birds fly and hover round, uttering a shrill 

 cry, and snapping with their bills. They will then alight at 



