LONGEARED, SHOHTEARED, AND TAWNY-OWLS 405 



>w-hawk. In such a nursery from four to seven eggs are laid, 

 which, according to the usage of owls, are incubated as soon as laid, 

 hence young of different ages and sizes are found in the MUM nest 

 What we may call aberrations in the selection of a site for a nursery 

 are rare, but instances of nesting on the ground have been recorded. 

 One siKl i instance was given by Mr. C. F. Archibald, 1 who found a 

 iM-st at riverston, under a tiny Scots fir, among the heather, in peat 

 moss containm- tuo ._"_>. This \\;ix on Ma\ :;. I'.NH. \\licn\isitrd 

 .. i in on the 16th of the same month the eggs had vanished. But 

 three days later a second was found, about one hundred yards from the 

 first, and in an exactly similar position. This contained four eggs, from 

 which three were hatched. To make certain that no mistake hud 

 occurred, one young bird was kept, and throve in captivity. This 

 curious choice of a site is the more remarkable since there were 

 plenty of suitable Ueei close at hand. Normally, however, the site 

 chosrii for ;i mirM-r\ is about ;\\riit\ or thirt\ I'cct lii-li. occasionally 

 as lour as twelve feet, or as high as forty feet from the ground. 



The young have a curiously discordant note, which has been 

 compared to the creaking of a gate swinging on unoiled hinges ; while 

 the adults, though, as we have remarked, usually silent birds, have yet 

 cries to represent varying moods. Thus they are said to make a 

 silver}' chirruping note, like the shaking of a small bag of silver 

 coins, just as they are beginning to sally forth for the night, and as 

 a greeting. The young also are said by the same observer 2 to make 

 the same note when food is brought to them. The female when 

 alarmed, or angry, as when the young are threatened, makes a loud 

 noise, likened to kyak, or described as "quacking." But its most 

 interesting notes are those heard mainly early in the year. These are 

 tli' nuptial calls, and sound like oo long drawn out, and persistently 

 repeated. At this season, too, the male gives vent to strange moaning 

 sounds, made, it \\ould scrm, when on the wing, and accompanied by 

 a strange percussion of the wings brought smartly over the back, as in 



> Zbofcyu/, 1801, 81. ' C. H. Bryant, Zoologist, 1906, : 



