TEE LONG -EARED OWL. 83 



quarter in breadth. About the beginning' of April the 

 young ones are hatched ; they are quaint-looking characters 

 at first, being thickly covered with soft white down, which 

 becomes browner as they get older, they make no attempt 

 to quit the nest for the first three or four weeks. Their 

 capacity for receiving continuous supplies of food is, how- 

 ever, developed at a very early stage of their existence. 



For some time after quitting the nest the young Owls 

 perch about on some adjacent boughs, and indicate the 

 cravings of their appetites by making (generally towards 

 the evening) a most melancholy and plaintive cry. The 

 old birds feed them with great assiduity and diligence. 



The food of this bird consists of rats, mice, moles, 

 young rabbits, and birds, the latter probably being seized 

 whilst roosting. The Long-eared Owl is an indefatigable 

 hunter, and evinces no squeamish partiality as to the 

 nature of his prey. It may truthfully be said that ^^ all 

 are fish that come to the net.^^ A well-known ornitho- 

 logist examined the stomach of one that had been shot, 

 and found therein part of a rat, the skull of a mouse, and 

 the heads of two sparrows. 



The food, when it happens to be a mouse, is swallowed 

 whole; and in the case of a bird, the wing feathers are 

 usually pulled out first. The fur and feathers are rejected 

 after about twelve hours ; and the whereabouts of the birds 

 may frequently be discovered by the number of these re- 

 jected castings. 



The note, which is not so frequently heard as that of 

 the other Owls, may be said to resemble the syllable 

 '' hoo-ok.^' 



Th(- Long-eared Owl is very partial to thickly-grown 

 trees, such as Scotch firs, holly, ivy, and evergreens, and 



