72 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



grow very savage when approached with a dog at 

 heel. A case of a clergyman and others heing at- 

 tacked by a furious member of the species in East 

 Anglia last spring, which was reported in the 

 newspapers at the time, had its parallel in West- 

 moreland some years ago. A pair of Tawny Owls 

 tenanted an old cow-shed for years together, and 

 laid their eggs every spring in a wooden milk- 

 bowl, which the farmer on whose land they lived 

 obligingly placed for their accommodation in a 

 hay loft. The female knew her benefactor so well, 

 that she would allow him to stroke her back whilst 

 she sat on her eggs, without being in the least 

 disturbed. But one day, just after she had hatched 

 out her chicks, an inquisitive servant-girl visited 

 the shed in order to inspect the down- clad young 

 " oolets." Directly she had mounted a ladder 

 sufficiently far for her head to be on a level with 

 the floor of the loft, the infuriated mother Owl 

 darted forward and buried her talons in the terrified 

 maid's scalp, and nearly destroyed the sight of one 

 of her eyes. 



Our illustration was made in the hay-loft of 

 an old tumble-down bam in the north of England, 

 by means of magnesium ribbon, which had to be 

 burnt over a shovel so as to prevent setting the 

 building and its contents on fire. 



Although the Screech and Tawny Owls breed 

 in somew r hat similar situations, the larger-sized 

 eggs of the latter prevent any mistake in regard 

 to their identity, if the birds themselves should not 

 be seen. 



