HAEEIEES — TAWNY OWL. 35 



meadows of the Evenlode^ near King-liam, in Febniaiy, 1882 

 (MS. notes), and a yonng- male, now in Mr. G. Arnatt's col- 

 lection, was shot at Stanton Harcourt on the 8th November, 

 1883. These are the only recent occm'rences of which I have 

 had notice, bnt a fine old male was seen by a friend of the 

 Rev. H. A. Macpherson on the Berkshii-e side of the Isis at 

 Cnmnor near Oxford on the 15th March, 1879. 



MONTAGU'S HARRIER. 



Circus cineraceus. 

 Montagues Harrier is an occasional visitor of rare oc- 

 currence. It has been met with near Woodstock, where, as 

 Mr. T. Prater records in a note dated the 23rd September, 

 1848, a female was shot a short time previously, and the 

 Messrs. Matthews received information from Dr. Kirtland 

 of a male, in the plumage of the first year, which was shot 

 on Otmoor in October, 1846, and from Mr. T. Goatley of 

 another, in the same plumag-e, procured near Thame; they 

 mention also that it had been met with in the neighbom-hood 

 of Oxford in January, 1849. (Zoologist, %^()6.) An adult male 

 from Oxfordshii*e is in the British Museum. [Catalogue of 

 Birds in Brit. Mtis. I. p. 66.) 



THE TAWNY OWL. 

 Stfix aluco. 

 The Brown, or Tawny, Owl is a resident, and though most 

 abundant in the woods, is generally distributed in some num- 

 bers all over the county where timber abounds. Dark fir 

 plantations, or spinneys, are a favourite abode of this fine 

 species, and its loud hoot may generally be heard in such 

 situations soon after sundown. 



The Tawny Owl deposits its eggs in hollow trees, and is 

 an early breeder. At Bloxham Grove, an old elm, which had 

 lost a great limb in a former gale, a hollow being gradually 



D 2 



^? 



