OUR BIRDS OF PREY. 71 



certainly the Short- Eared Owl may be likened to the Harrier. It 

 beats the heaths, marches, and open places, while its singularly 

 small head and general appearance irresistibly recall the female 

 Hen-Harrier. Like these birds, too, it nests on the ground. 



The old belief that owls were blinded by the daylight is now 

 generally known to be a mistake ; but the Short-Eared Owl is 

 more diurnal in its habits than any of its kind with which the 

 writer is acquainted, except the Hawk Owl.' Long before the 

 night sets in this bird may be seen about the Broads of Norfolk, 

 quartering the reed beds in a most interesting way. Like great 

 moths they seem their length of wing and lightness of body 

 giving them a remarkable buoyancy of flight. 



There are few of us who have not seen one of these poor birds 

 rising from heather or rough scrub before the advancing line, only 

 to be knocked over by some over-zealous shooter, resolved to let 

 nothing off that flies. These persons, on being remonstrated with, 

 sometimes apologize with, " Upon my honour, I thought it was a 

 woodcock." It is a trying moment that, for one must not always 

 say the thing that one would, nor even so much as this, " Until 

 you have 'learnt one bird from another, my friend, you had better 

 not carry a gun." 



