22 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



amongst heather, or in a marsh amongst sedge 

 and rushes. 



Mr. A. G. More, who has been at great pains to 

 ascertain the distribution of birds in Great Britain 

 during the nesting season, 1 says that this owl 

 breeds in Suffolk, Norfolk, 2 and Cambridge ; for- 

 merly also in Huntingdon (Mr. F. Bond). The 

 nest has been once or twice taken near Scarborough 

 (Mr. A. S. Bell) ; in Durham and Northumberland 

 (Mr. Hancock and Rev. H. B. Tristram) ; Sir 

 William Jardine also mentions the moorland ranges 

 of Westmoreland and Cumberland as probable 

 breeding- places. In Scotland the Short-eared 

 Owl nests regularly in Dumfries (Sir W. Jardine) ; 

 on Ailsa (Mr. R. Gray) ; in the counties of Selkirk 

 and Roxburgh occasionally (Mr. J. F. Whitecross) ; 

 in Stirling (Mr. J. Murray) ; Clackmannan (Dr. P. 

 Brotherson) ; in Perth (Mr. A. Pullar) ; in Ross, 

 Sutherland, Caithness, the Hebrides, and Orkneys. 



1 See The Ibis for 1865, p. 15. 



2 With regard to Norfolk, Mr. Stevenson says : " In the spring 

 these birds again proceed northwards towards the end of March, 

 having, I believe, entirely ceased to breed in Norfolk, where, especially 

 in '.the once fenny districts of the south-western parts of the county, 

 they were commonly met with during the breeding season." Birds of 

 Norfolk, 1866, vol. i. p. 50. 



