SHORT-EARED OWL. 181 
sometimes be seen hawking over turnip fields, as well as in 
more wild districts, which they naturally prefer. When dis- 
turbed, they fly but a little way, and then alight again on 
the ground. If captured they defend themselves with much 
spirit, as does the Long-eared Owl, but are in some degree 
tameable; so much so as to take food from the hand. One 
kept by Montagu never drank during six months. They have 
been observed to retreat into rabbit- holes, at the entrance of 
which they had been stationed, after the manner of the 
Burrowing Owl of America. 
On occasion, this species exhibits considerable powers of 
flight, and if teased by the pursuit of a Rook or other bird, 
easily surmounts it, and sometimes ascends to a great height, 
where it wheels about in circles. It flies much after the 
manner of a Sea-gull, and seems but very seldom to perch 
on trees. 
Grouse, pigeons, plovers, larks, yellow-hammers, and other 
small birds, chickens, which it sometimes snaps up even in 
the day-time from the barn door, rats, mice, reptiles, beetles 
and other insects, compose the prey of the Short-eared Owl. 
The legs of a purre were found in the stomach of one, and 
in another the remains of a bat. ‘Generally speaking,’ says 
Bishop Stanley, ‘a more useful race of birds does not exist; 
since, with the exception of one or two of the larger and 
rarer species, their food consists entirely of vermin and 
insects, very prejudicial to our crops; and which, but for 
these nocturnal hunters, might do serious mischief. A 
striking instance of their utility occurred some years ago in 
the neighbourhood of Bridgewater, in Somersetshire, where 
during the summer such incredible numbers of mice overran 
the country as to destroy a large portion of vegetation; and 
their ravages might have extended to an alarming degree, 
had it not been for a sudden assemblage of Owls, which 
resorted from all parts to prey upon them. Short-eared 
Owls, to the number of twenty-eight, have been counted in 
a single field, collected together, no doubt, by swarms of 
mice which in a favourable season had been bred there.’ 
The note is said, by Meyer, to be soft and pleasing, and 
to resemble the words ‘kiou, kiou.’ If alarmed for their 
young, they utter a shrill cry, and make, as also at other 
times, a snapping noise with their bills. The motion is so 
quick in doing this, that it is with difficulty the opening 
and shutting of the bill can be observed. 
