BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



birds on the ground, feeding them in that 

 position, and flew at everyone who passed 

 that way, clawing face and ears, and eventu- 

 ally establishing a reign of terror. Another 

 owl behaved in somewhat similar fashion in 

 a spinney close to Axmouth, South Devon, 

 punishing a coastguard so severely that the 

 man took to his heels. Such determined 

 tactics in defence of the young are the more 

 singular when we remember that owls are, 

 in normal circumstances, shy and retiring 

 birds. Yet they occasionally seem to be 

 possessed by more sociable instincts, in proof 

 of which one of the long-eared kind has been 

 seen feeding in the company of tame hawks ; 

 a pair of owls once nested in a dovecote 

 close to a keeper's lodge in the Highlands ; 

 and wild owls have been known to pay 

 nightly visits to a cage in the Botanic Gardens 

 at Launceston (Tasmania), in order to bring 

 food to their captive friends. 



Even apart from these rigorous measures 

 of defence, the nesting habits of owls are 

 not without interest. The majority lay 

 then 1 eggs in either hollow trees or ruins, and 

 it is worth remark that these nocturnal 

 120 



