SHORT-EARED OWL. 137 



alight at a short distance, survey the aggressor, and again 

 resume their flight and cries. The young are barely able 

 to fly by the 12th of August, and appear to leave the nest 

 some time before they are able to rise from the ground. I 

 have taken them, on that great day to sportsmen, squatted 

 on the heath like young black game, at no great distance 

 from each other, and always attended by the parent birds. 

 Last year (1831) I found them in their old haunts, to which 

 they appear to return very regularly ; and the female, with 

 a young bird, was procured. The young could only fly 

 for sixty or seventy yards." 



Mr. Selby, from finding old birds during summer and 

 on the 12th of August, at which time they were moulting, 

 believes that a few pairs breed on the higher moors of 

 Northumberland, and probably also some on those of 

 Westmoreland and Cumberland. Mr. Hoy, in the Maga- 

 zine of Natural History, says, " I am acquainted with two 

 localities in the south-western part of Norfolk, where 

 pairs of this bird breed ; and I have known several in- 

 stances of their eggs and young being found. One situa- 

 tion is on a dry heathy soil, the nest placed on the ground 

 amongst high heath; the other in low fenny ground, 

 among sedge and rushes : a friend of mine procured some 

 eggs from the latter situation during the last summer 

 (1832). The Short-eared Owl is pretty common in 

 many parts of Norfolk during the autumn and winter, 

 the great majority of them retiring northwards in the 

 spring, only leaving a few scattered pairs to breed in this 

 district." 



The eggs of this bird, seldom exceeding three in number, 

 are smooth and white, one inch eight lines in length by one 

 inch three lines and a half in breadth. 



Small quadrupeds and small birds form the principal 

 food of this Owl. In the stomach of one, Colonel Mon- 



