36 THE BIRDS OF OXFOEDSHIRE. 



formed at the fracture, was felled some years ago. When it 

 crashed to the ground a Browai Owl was found in the hollow, 

 sitting on two eggs : one of these was broken, but the bird 

 was quite uninjured, and flew away on being liberated, having 

 had a happier fate than the devoted Raven which Gilbert 

 White tells us was whipped down by the twigs and killed 

 when the Raven tree was felled. This occurred on the ist or 

 2nd of March, and as the egg's of Owls are not laid on con- 

 secutive days, the first egg at least must have been laid in 

 February. 



The Brown Owl feeds on rats, mice, moles, shrews, voles, 

 insects, and small birds. It is especially fond of the dor-beetle 

 (Geotrnpes remans), the elytra of which may often be found in 

 the indigestible portion of its food, which these, in common 

 with all our birds of prey, throw up in the form of castings 

 or pellets. Notwithstanding its useful habits a considerable 

 number of these birds are annually shot by keepers, who do 

 not seem to grasp the fact that when Owls are abroad young- 

 Pheasants are not. 



THE LONG-EARED OWL. / ^ 



Ash otiis. 



The Long-eared Owl is a scarce resident, and, as such, 

 probably restricted entirely to the woods. In the neighbour- 

 hood of Henley it breeds sparingly. [Zoologist, p. 8817.) Mr. 

 C. M. Prior informs me that a pair bred in a cover near 

 Deddington some time previous to 1879, and the Rev. H. A. 

 Macpherson examined, in June, 1880, two nestlings taken 

 near Charlbury, probably in Wychwood Forest. A young 

 bird was captured in Coggs Wood, near Witney, in 1883 

 (Warner, MS.), and another, with down still adhering at the 

 nape of the neck, was shot in Lower Worton Wood on the 

 15th August, 1885. Mr. Warner also wrote me word that 

 a young bird was seen, in broad daylight, perched on a fence 



