THE LONG-EARED OWL 
ASIO. OTUS 
Loca. names in surrounding counties : 
Stratus IN British Avirauna: A widely distributed 
resident, its numbers increased in autumn by migratory 
individuals. 
RapiAL DistriBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF OT. 
Paut’s: The present species is certainly the rarest and 
the most local of the Owls to be met with in the Metro- 
politan area. Possibly the absence of dense fir-woods 
and other suitable haunts may be the reason. I know 
of no regular resort of this Owl within eight miles of St. 
Paul’s, but it may possibly breed at Wembley and Pinner 
in the north-west, in the Bushey district, and in the Crays 
in the south. I know of no Essex resort. Just beyond 
our limits this Owl certainly breeds at Windsor, Burnham, 
and Farnham, and also near Uxbridge. 
It is with some diffidence that I include the Long- 
eared Owl in the present work, and I do so chiefly because 
there is a strong possibility of the bird being overlooked 
in many of the outlying districts well within the fifteen- 
mile radius. Pine- and fir-woods are the favourite haunts 
of this Owl, and where it does occur several pairs not 
unfrequently resort to the same neighbourhood. In its 
habits it very closely resembles the Tawny Owl. It is 
just as nocturnal and retiring, passing the day in some 
dark, secluded spot amongst ivy,in a hole in a tree, or in 
the dark crown of a pine. It also has the same habit as 
the Tawny Owl of sleeping whilst pressed close up to the 
trunk of a tree, where its beautifully mottled plumage 
so closely resembles the bark that detection is difficult. 
The approach of twilight arouses the Long-eared Owl 
into activity, and it comes forth into the open in quest 
of food. In soft and noiseless flight it quarters the 
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