136 LONG-EARED OWL. 
of Scotland, and a veritable engraving duly chronicled the 
barbarous despoiling of sheep of their fleeces in the month 
of October; and in that part of the Kingdom too! The writer 
was not aware that the term ‘shearmg’ applied in the north 
of England to corn, as well as to sheep, and had as little thought 
for the unfortunate animals, as Mudie for the wretched Rooks. 
The eggs, which are of a round shape, and white, are 
generally two in number, but sometimes three or four, and 
some writers say five, are laid about the end of March or 
the beginning of April, by the latter end of which the young 
are hatched. 
‘For the first month,’ says Mr. Selby, ‘they take up their 
abode in some adjoining tree; and for many subsequent days, 
indeed for weeks, may be heard after sunset uttering a plaintive 
eall for food, during which time the parent birds are diligently 
employed in hawking for prey.’ 
These birds vary considerably in the depth and tone of their 
markings. Male; weight, nine or ten ounces; length, from one 
foot two to one foot three inches; bill, dull black—a streak 
of dark brown extends from it to the eye. Cere, flesh-coloured, 
hid by the feathers of the wreath, which are light brown on 
each outer side, with a half-circular boundary line of darker 
brown; on the inner side, dusky at the base, and white towards 
the tips. Iris, orange yellow, the radiated circle round the eye is 
cream-colour, faintly tinged with orange; the bristly feathers 
between the eyes and the bill are black at the base and white 
at the tips, the shafts black. Head, yellowish brown, mottled 
with darker and white. The tufts, which are formed of from 
seven or eight to twelve feathers, an inch and a half or more 
in length, are brownish black in the middle, and edged with 
white, light, or rufous, or yellowish brown—the hind ones are 
the shortest; the face is ferruginous, speckled with black and 
rufous, and surrounded in one of my specimens with part of 
a circle of white on the lower side. Neck and nape, light 
yellowish brown, much speckled and streaked with brownish 
black, dusky, ash grey, rufous, or white—the whole elegantly 
blended. Chin, throat, and breast, dark greyish white or cream- 
coloured, mixed with light or rufous brown, and streaked with 
dark brown, the shafts black; back, as the neck. 
The wings, when closed, reach a little beyond the end of 
the tail, and expand to the width of three feet, and from 
that to three feet two inches. Greater and lesser wing coverts, 
as the neck; primaries, light brown or salmon-colour, barred 
