TAWNY OWL. 153 
Nidification commences in March. The nest, if 1t deserves 
the name, is formed of a few soft feathers, a few straws, or 
a little moss, sometimes merely of the decayed wood in the 
hollow of a tree in which it is placed; and has once been 
observed so low down that a person could see into it from 
the ground; occasionally it is built in rocks, sometimes, it is 
said, in barns or the like buildings, or even in the deserted 
nests of other birds, such as buzzards, crows, and magpies. 
The young are hatched in April: they continue to perch among 
the branches of trees in the neighbourhood of the nest before 
finally taking their leave of it, and are fed during this interval 
by the parent birds. 
The eggs are white, and from two or three to four or five in 
number: the first is sat on as soon as laid, and the young are 
hatched in about three weeks: they are blind for some days, 
and their red eyelids look as if inflamed. 
The ground colour of these birds varies very much; scarcely 
two individuals are met with precisely similar in their markings. 
Male; weight, between fifteen and sixteen ounces; length, one 
foot one to one foot three inches; bill, pale horn-colour, much 
hid by bristles; cere, flesh-coloured; iris, dark brown, nearly 
black, two irregular white stripes extend backwards over the 
eye. Head, large; crown, dark brown and grey, tinged with 
rufous; the bristly feathers of the face are greyish white, 
interspersed with black near the bill; the small rounded feathers 
of the wreath are black in the middle, edged, spotted, and 
barred with white and rufous; the grey prevails near the eyes, 
and brown near the ears; neck, dingy white, the feathers streaked 
with rufous brown, the shafts dusky, and zigzag lines or spots 
at the tips. The feathers of the nape are dark brown in the 
centre, edged with brownish grey, spotted with brown, and 
tinged with rufous; chin, brownish grey; throat and_ breast, 
as the neck, the lines on the lower part of the latter are 
indistinctly crossed; back, as the nape. 
The wings expand to the width of from two feet eight 
inches to three feet: they do not reach to the middle of the 
tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, as the back, but more 
spotted with brown in waving lines, and with some white spots 
on the greater, forming obscure patches; primaries, rufous yellow 
barred with dusky, white at the base; the fourth the longest 
in the wing, the fifth almost as long; underneath they are 
dull white, barred with pale brown; secondaries, the same, 
but the bars are narrower and more distinct: tertiaries as the 
