406 THE OWLS 



the case of wood-pigeons, but owing to the peculiar softness of the 

 quills in the owl the sound is muffled and is like " bock.'" The 

 nightjar makes a similar, but sharper, sound. While this curious and 

 most unexpected note is being made, the bird will often fling himself 

 about in the air as if in play. 



That the long and shorteared-owls are closely related must be 

 evident from the remarkable structure of the aperture of the ear, 

 described later in this chapter (p. 411). As much might be inferred 

 from the general superficial likeness of the two birds, though the 

 longeared species is decidedly a " smarter " bird to look at. The 

 shorteared species, by comparison, has a " dowdy " appearance, lack- 

 ing, for one thing, sharpness of definition in the longitudinal stripes, 

 which had no transverse barrings. But they differ, as we have already 

 hinted, still more widely in their habits, for the shorteared-owl is a 

 ground-dweller, haunting meadows, turnip-fields, commons, furze- 

 brakes, sedgy marsh-land, and fens. Moreover, it is a more markedly 

 migratory species than the longeared-owl, arriving in considerable 

 numbers, and in companies, in the autumn, at about the same time as 

 the immigrant woodcock, on which account it is commonly known as 

 the " woodcock-owl." Whether, as is the rule among migrants, they 

 fly at a considerable height when crossing the sea is not known, but 

 they certainly adopt the practice of descending when near land, and 

 this to a lower level than the woodcock, inasmuch as, on the Lincoln- 

 shire coast, for instance, they are commonly taken in the nets 

 stretched along the shore at a height of about two feet from the 

 ground, while the woodcock are never so captured. The shorteared- 

 owl returns northwards in spring to breed, and these birds, it is 

 possible, may some day be discovered to be distinguishable from our 

 resident, breeding birds, though these are becoming fewer annually. 

 Nevertheless, a remnant of this ancient breeding-stock remains, and 

 in suitable localities a few succeed in rearing broods annually. At 

 times the number of these breeding birds is considerably augmented, 

 as on occasions when, either from the too persistent persecution of 



