SHORT-EARED OWL. 287 



uttering a shrill cry, and snapping with their bills. 

 They will then alight at a short distance, survey 

 the aggressor, and again resume their flight and 

 cries. The young are barely able to fly by the 

 12th of August, and appear to leave the nest some 

 time before they are able to rise from the ground. 

 I have taken them, on that great day to sportsmen, 

 squatted on the heath like young black game, at 

 no great distance from each other, and always 

 attended by the parent birds. * We have since 

 occasionally observed this Owl in December and 

 January ; by no means common, however, four or 

 five specimens during five or six years ;t and it is 

 most probable that the great proportion of those 

 which breed with us return again during winter, 

 and the bird is certainly much more abundant on 

 the ranges of upland muir during summer than in 

 any locality after the breeding season has been 

 completed. Those we have seen at this season 

 have been disturbed from whin covers or patches 

 of long and tangled grass and bramble, sitting 

 close at first, but afterwards very shy and wary. 

 " In Ireland," Mr Thompson remarks, " it is one 



* Wilson's North American Ornithology, edit. Sir W. 

 Jardine, ii. p. 63. Mr Hoy, in London's Magazine of 

 Natural History, mentions two localities in the south- 

 western part of Norfolk, where pairs of this bird breed. 



t Mr Macgillivray mentions one near Edinburgh in De* 

 eember. 



