THE " WOODCOCK " OWL 121 



the north of England and in certain portions of 

 Scotland, inclusive of some of the big groups of 

 islands lying off the north and west of that country. 

 Except that the bird is sometimes an abundant, 

 albeit local, breeder within our realm during 

 periodical and peculiarly severe plagues of field- 

 voles, when it may be found nesting in districts 

 where under ordinary conditions it is seldom seen, 

 the only spot I know of in Britain where it can 

 always be called common is the Orkneys, and 

 maybe the Shetlands. To go back for a moment 

 to the special and some-time breeding-irruptions of 

 this Owl, these are almost certainly due to the fact 

 that many of the winter- visitors, enticed into an 

 unwonted sojourn in a strange land by an abnormal 

 supply of food, elect to stay and rear their young 

 on our moors. Strange to say, never yet has an 

 instance of this bird breeding in Ireland been 

 reported, though it is well known there every 

 winter ; and elsewhere in our Islands it may 

 always be accounted a rare and irregular 

 nester. 



The appearance of the Woodcock-Owl affords 

 two points worthy of reflection : the first is that 

 light, which is usually more or less repellant to 

 Owls, in no wise seems to affect it, indeed it often 

 hunts happily and unheeding in the full glare of the 

 noontide sun. The second point is that, shun- 

 ning hollow trees, belfries, and the deserted abodes 

 of other species which make stick-nests in trees, it 



