48 STEIGID^E. 



set his traps and limed twigs, conceals himself in the 

 neighbourhood and imitates the note of this Owl. The 

 little birds, impelled by rage or fear, or a silly combination 

 of both, assemble for the purpose of mobbing the common 

 enemy. In their anxiety to discern the object of their 

 abhorrence, they fall one after another into the snare, and 

 become the prey of the fowler. The Long-eared Owl is not 

 altogether undeserving of the persecution which is thus 

 intended for her, her principal food being field-mice and 

 such little birds as she can surprise when asleep. In fact, 

 she respects neither the person nor the property of her 

 neighbours, making her home in the old nests of large 

 birds and squirrels, and appropriating, as food for herself 

 and her voracious young, the carcases of any that she 

 finds herself strong enough to master and kill. 



The cry of this bird is prolonged and plaintive, though 

 consisting of not more than two or three notes repeated at 

 intervals. The note of the young bird is similar, but is 

 uttered in a higher key, and seems to be intended as a 

 petition to its parents for a supply of food. A writer in 

 the "Zoologist,"* who has had many opportunities of 

 observing this species in its native haunts, says, that it 

 does not confine its flight entirely to the darker hours, 

 as he has met with it in the woods sailing quickly along, 

 as if hawking, on a bright summer day. It is curious to 

 observe, he says, how flat they invariably make their nests, 

 so much so, that it is difficult to conceive how the eggs 

 retain their position, even in a slight wind, when the 

 parent bird leaves them. The eggs are invariably three 

 in number, and there are grounds for supposing that the 

 female bird begins to sit as soon as she has laid her 

 first egg. 



* Vol. ii. p. 562. 



