174 



THE TAWNY HOOTING OWL. 



From some of my own trifling verses, I see I have felt a spark 

 of the same pleasant feeling when listening to the owl — 



" I love the lonely, cone-clad wood, 

 Where birds sing ever true ; 

 Where none but Nature doth intrude, 

 To hear the oivl's hoo-hoo ;" 



for, as already said, 



" The eerie hooting of the owl will please 

 When heard within her lone retreat ; 

 And even will the soughiwj of the trees, 

 If heard in peace of mind, be sweet." 



This owl has its scant nest in the holes of trees, amongst ivy, 

 in an old carrion crow's or a magpie's nest, which, being covered, 

 suits it ; sometimes in old buildings or rocks, like the barn owl, 

 and lays four or five white eggs, larger and even rounder than 

 those of the long-eared, short-eared, or barn owl's, being If 1 " by 

 1J 16 , against 1J 16 by 1| 10 . They are hatched in April or 

 early in May. The young are long in quitting the nest — 

 perching near it, where they are fed by both of the old birds. 

 But, as if to show that birds break all rules as to nesting, their 

 eggs have been found in a rabbit's burrow. A gentleman, in a 

 letter to the newspapers from Glenapp, Ayrshire, written March 

 20th, 1887, headed "A Hardy Bird," says :— 



"Last week, during the severe storm of snow and intense frost, I found 

 in a wood here a nest of the tawny owl, and three eggs in it. It was in a 

 disused rabbit hole. My attention was drawn to the spot by the bird 

 suddenly coming out of the earth as it were. The snow was lying close up 

 to the nest." 



The Rev. Mr Bree, in the Magazine of Natural History, tells 

 that " several young owls were taken from the nest and placed 

 in a yew tree in his garden. The parent birds repeatedly 

 brought them live fish, called bull heads (coitus gobisj, and loach 

 (cobites barbatala), got from the neighbouring brook, where 

 these fish abound." He also found the same fish " lying under 

 the trees where the young owls perched, after they had left 

 the nest, and where the old birds fed them." Like most birds 

 of prey, the young are darker than the old birds. They breed in 

 the red plumage next spring. The adults become greyer with 

 age — like Uncle Tom — the males greyest. I am not sure if 

 they breed about St Andrews, as most of the old woods are cut 

 down;* and owls — like human crofters — and every other 



A pair reared their young this year (1692) at Denbrae, two miles from St Andrews. The 

 female was shot in June, and is now stuffed. Another was killed with a stone last year at 

 Mountmelville. 



