172 OWLS AND OWL-LIKE BIRDS. 



LONG-EARED OWL.— Plate 79. Length, 14 

 inches. General colour above warm buff, finely 

 mottled and spotted with gray and brown and streaked 

 with dark brown ; eyes yellow ; facial disc buffy, with 

 dark eye-pits and a dark rim, surmounted by long 

 tufts of plumes like pointed ears ; wing and tail 

 feathers with alternate buff and dark-brown cross- 

 bars, the wings having rows of large white spots ; 

 under parts buff, heavily streaked with dark brown, 

 the streaks in part crossed by minute straight bars ; 

 bill dark ; legs and toes feathered, fawny. Resident 

 and winter migrant. 



Eggs. — 4-6, rounded, plain white; I'C'^l'B inch 

 (plate 129). 



Nest. — None, the eggs being deposited in old 

 nests of Crows, Rooks, Magpies, Ring-Doves, or in 

 a squirrel's drey. 



Distribution. — General in wooded districts through- 

 out the British Isles. 



The Long-Eared Owl inhabits pine and fir woods 

 in all parts of the British Isles, its numbers being 

 much increased by autumn immigrants. It lays its 

 eggs in the deserted nests of Herons, Magpies, 

 Crows, Sparrow-Hawks, and even of Wood-Pigeons, 

 or in a squirrel's drey, keeping to the darkest 

 parts of the woods. Here it passes the daj^ sleeping, 

 often in close alignment with a tree-trunk, its slim 

 figure contributing further to conceal it. It appears 

 to be less exclusive than other Owls, and many birds 

 will thus pass the day together in some dark fir-tree 

 after the breeding season is past. If the bird be seen, 

 the long head-tufts, the yellow eyes, and long, slim 



