BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 
birds on the ground, feeding them in that 
position, and flew at everyone who passed 
that way, clawing face and ears, and eventu- 
ally establishing a reign of terror. Another 
owl behaved in somewhat similar fashion in 
a spinney close to Axmouth, South Devon, 
punishing a coastguard so severely that the 
man took to his heels. Such determined 
tactics in defence of the young are the more 
singular when we remember that owls are, 
in normal circumstances, shy and retiring 
birds. Yet they occasionally seem to be 
possessed by more sociable instincts, in proof 
of which one of the long-eared kind has been 
seen feeding in the company of tame hawks ; 
a pair of owls once nested in a dovecote 
close to a keeper's lodge in the Highlands ; 
and wild owls have been known to pay 
nightly visits to a cage in the Botanic Gardens 
at Launceston (Tasmania), in order to bring 
food to their captive friends. 
Even apart from these rigorous measures 
of defence, the nesting habits of owls are 
not without interest. The majority lay 
their eggs in either hollow trees or ruins, and 
it is worth remark that these nocturnal 
120 
