THE SHORT-EARED OWL 145 
ing this species in its native haunts, says that it does not confine 
its flight entirely tothe darker hours, as he has met with it in the woods 
sailing quickly along, as if hawking, on a bright summer day. It is 
curious to observe, he says, how flat they invariably make their nests, 
so much so, that it is difficult to conceive how the eggs retain their 
position, even in a slight wind, when the parent bird leaves them. 
The eggs are four to six in number, and there are grounds for 
supposing that the female bird begins to sit as soon as she has laid 
her first egg. 
THE SHORT-EARED OWL 
ASIO ACCIPITRINUS 
Face whitish ; beak black ; iris yellow; egrets inconspicuous, of a few black 
feathers; eyes encircled by brownish black; upper plumage dusky 
brown, edged with yellow; lower pale orange, streaked with brown. 
Length sixteen inches; breadth thirty-eight. Eggs white. 
From the name, Hawk-Owl, sometimes given to this species, we 
should expect to find this bird not so decidedly nocturnal in its 
habits as the preceding ; and such is the case; for, though it does 
not habitually hunt by day, it has been known to catch up chickens 
from the farmyard, and has been seen in chase of pigeons. If attacked 
during daylight, it does not evince the powerless dismay of the last 
species, but effects a masterly retreat by soaring in a spiral direction 
until it has attained an elevation to which its adversary does not 
care to follow it. Unlike its allies, it frequents neither mountains 
nor forests, but is found breeding in a few marshy or moorland 
districts; later in the year it is met with in turnip fields and 
stubbles. As many as twenty-eight were once seen in a Single 
turnip-field in England ; from whence it has been inferred that in 
autumn the Short-eared Owls are gregarious, and establish them- 
selves for a time in any place they fall in with, where field-mice or 
other small quadrupeds are abundant. In England this bird is not 
uncommonly started by sportsmen when in pursuit of game. It 
then flies with a quick zig-zag motion for about a hundred yards, 
and alights on the ground, never on a tree. By some it is called 
the Woodcock-Owl, from its arriving and departing at about the 
same time with that bird; it is not, however, invariably a bird of 
passage, since many instances are on record of its breeding in this 
country, making a rude nest in a thick bush, either on the ground, 
or close to it, and feeding its young on mice, small birds, and even 
the larger game, as Moor-fowl, a bird more than double its own 
weight. The Short-eared Owl affords a beautiful illustration of 
a fact not generally known, that the nocturnal birds of prey have 
the right and left ear differently formed, one ear being so made as 
to hear sounds from above, and the otherfrom below. The opening 
B.B. bh 
