122 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



lays its white eggs on the ground, either amongst 

 the heather and rushes of the moors, or in the 

 sedges of the fens and broads, a fact which is all 

 the more anomalous when it is remembered that 

 most birds with the exception of the Harriers and 

 the majority of the duck tribe which produce 

 colourless, or nearly colourless, eggs, deposit 

 them in a more or less covered or gloomy site. In 

 this respect the Short-eared Owl resembles the 

 Harriers. Like them, too, it is a lover of open 

 expanses fields and any kind of rough ground 

 during winter ; in spring and summer, as has 

 already been seen, the fens and moorlands. 



Although on their arrival these Owls some- 

 times get enmeshed in the long and deadly flight- 

 nets set at intervals regularly every autumn along 

 the east coast in the direct line of the migrating 

 armies of birds, comparatively few meet this fate, 

 since, when "on passage," the majority fly fairly 

 high. Some now stay near the coast, others make 

 off inland. These latter, after -a brief rest, then 

 scatter over Britain far and wide, though in Cambria 

 this species is comparatively rare at all seasons. 



When the grip of winter has slowly relaxed, 

 most Short-eared Owls depart whence they came ; 

 yet in some districts, as, for example, in the Orkneys, 

 these birds, or some of them at any rate, seem to 

 be constant residents. Even there, however, some 

 of those hatched the previous summer may migrate, 

 for I am reliably informed that their visible num- 



