OWLS 201 



8. The scops owl (rare on migration).* 



9. The eagle owl (very rare wanderer). 

 10. The little owl (rare straggler). 



Thus, but four out of the ten are sufficiently 

 common to claim our attention. Of these, the 

 tawny or brown owl is by far the largest, measur- 

 ing from eighteen to nineteen inches in length. 

 Next in size to this comes the short-eared owl. 

 which measures from fourteen to over sixteen 

 inches, the long-eared and the white or barn owls 

 measuring alike fourteen inches. 



It is commonly believed that all owls are 

 equally helpless in the daytime. Such is, how- 

 ever, not the case, for some of the family are able 

 to see, if not as well in the day as the night, at all 

 events well enough for all practical purposes ; 

 and I have known the short-eared owl, otherwise 

 termed the woodcock owl, by reason of its arriving 

 in this country about the same time as the wood- 

 cock, make a flight of considerable length in 

 bright sunlight. On one occasion, when snipe- 

 shooting in a bog in Anglesea, I flushed some five 

 or six of these owls, and they flew nearly as well 



country is one which was found near Amesbury, in Wiltshire. 

 This bird is in the collection of the late Mr. James Rawlence, 

 of Wilton, who when living kindly showed it to me. He pro- 

 cured it from the father of a lady with whom I am well 

 acquainted. 



* Two scops owls male and female have recently been 

 observed in Wilton Park (October, 1895). 



