CHAPTER VIII. 



THE " WOODCOCK " OWL. 



LATE in the month of "chill October," and early 

 in " drear November," about the time the Wood- 

 cocks come, there reaches our eastern shores an 

 Owl which is familiarly known as the Woodcock- 

 Owl, probably because both birds arrive on our 

 coast much about the same time. This is the 

 Short-eared Owl,* and seeing that it appears, as if 

 purposely, at a time when rats and mice are 

 swarming, it should if for no other reason be 

 willingly welcomed. 



Considering that this species visits us every 

 ' fall," often in considerable numbers, to disperse 

 over the country for the winter, its breeding-range 

 in Britain is curiously restricted, and especially when 

 we remember that, although mainly a winter- 

 migrant, it does nest with us regularly, and that 

 its diet of small mammals and birds is similar to 

 that of allied species. A certain small percentage, 

 then, frequent the broads and fens of East Anglia 

 for breeding purposes, as in Norfolk, Suffolk, and 

 Cambridgeshire, while a few pairs usually nest 

 annually in Wales, as well as, here and there, in 



* Asio flammeus (Pontop.)=accipitrinw (Pall.). 



