250 OWLS. 



eagerly hunted for. Small birds are, however, 

 occasionally taken, the remains being found in the 

 stomach ; at the same time, we mention the mam- 

 malia as the more general food. The Short-eared 

 Owl is a bird considerably more diurnal in its 

 habits, and during the breeding season it preys 

 on young of game and the birds which frequent 

 muirland districts. The two large species, also, 

 seem to attack grouse and rabbits, or young hares, 

 but all of them by coming suddenly on their prey, 

 and not by entering upon any chase or pursuit. 

 Mr Thompson, in his paper on the Irish Raptores^ 

 mentions, on the authority of a friend, that the 

 remains of coleoptera have been frequently found 

 mixed up with the castings.* Temminck men- 

 tions this food in his Manual, and it is also con- 

 firmed by Mr Waterton, who discovered the shreds 

 of beetles in the castings of the Tawny Owl 

 Several of the night-flying coleoptera are of large 

 size ; and if we judge from the analogy presented 

 by the smaller Falcons, we are entitled to consider 

 that insects are more frequently preyed on than 

 is at present suspected. Some of the small species 

 feed wholly " upon beetles, grasshoppers, and other 

 insects." t Fish also form a portion of their 

 food. Mr Waterton has seen the White Owl 

 seize a fish in the water ; while we have the autho- 



* See Magazine of Zoology and Botany, ii. p. 178. 



f* Mr Spence, in London's Mag. of Nat. Hist. v. p. 655. 





