O WLS 85 



by the courageous parent-birds, even foxes being driven away by them and the 

 largest birds-of-prey put to flight. If, when on the nest, sitting in her calm 

 way with bristled feathers, depressed ear-tufts, and half-closed eyes like a shape- 

 less mass of feathers, the hen be disturbed, she opens her eyes wide, raises 

 her feathers so that she looks double her size, moves her head and body from 

 one side to the other, lifts her feet alternately, turning the outer toes forward 

 and backward, slowty closes and opens her eyes, trembles and hisses, snaps her 

 beak, and suddenly rushes on her enemy, which if once clutched she does not 

 readily release. The eagle-owl is always on the alert, and is much livelier by 

 day than others of its kind, nothing which happens within range escaping its 

 attention. When alarmed, it flies through the bushes to some other hiding-place, 

 the flight being mostly low and irregular, as well as light and silent. 



The long-eared owl {Asio otus) dwells in the gloomy pine-forests, 

 ' where, with its body pressed close to the trunk of the tree, it sleeps 

 during the day on some strong branch. These owls are gregarious in habit, 

 and during migration may often be seen in flocks of a hundred or so at a time. 

 They also sleep by eights and tens on a tree, and sometimes in the open field, 

 where, at the approach of man, they stand like stones, and then slowly move off, but 

 not before the enemy is close to them. On migration they follow a route along 

 which mice are abundant, for the smaller rodents form their favourite food. They 

 never hunt in couples, being so careful of their young that one of the parents 

 always remains at the nest. The male provides the brooding female with a good 

 supply of food, but, by his cries and the clapping of his wings, often betrays the 

 nest, which is generally the deserted nursery of some crow, pigeon, or bird-of-prey. 

 In most parts of the Continent the long-eared owl is met with wherever there are 

 forests. Its range extends from Sweden to northern Africa, and from the Azores, 

 Madeira, and the Canaries, through Europe and Asia, to China and Japan. 



The wood-owls are easily recognised by the absence of ear-tufts 



Tawny OwL 



and their short bodies. The best known species is the tawny wood- 

 owl (Syrnium aluco), which lives as a rule among trees, and keeps clear of 

 lonely buildings, and particularly ruins and uninhabited houses. So long as there 

 are leaves it will sleep on one of the main boughs, but in autumn and winter it 

 retires to some hole in the trunk, from which it is not easily driven out. The eggs 

 are sometimes found in a sort of rudimentary nest, but generally on the bare bottom 

 of the nesting-hole. This species shuns the daylight more than other owls, but is 

 very active by night in search of field-mice, moles, frogs, large insects, cater- 

 pillars, and birds up to the size of ring-doves. Unlike other owls, it always ejects 

 the pellets of indigestible materials which form in its stomach in some particular 

 place. In other respects this courageous bird, which will attack and chase even 

 the buzzard, especially at night in the vicinity of the nest or roosting-tree, has the 

 same habit as other owls ; it hisses, bristles up its plumage, blinks its eyelids, clicks 

 with its beak, and moves its large head to and fro when disturbed. During the 

 nesting-time its call of tu-whit, tu-whoo ! oh-h-h-h ! is frequently heard at night, 

 and by the cry the tawny owl is well known to the people of most continental 

 countries. This owl is found beyond the boundaries of Europe only in Asia Minor, 

 Syria, and Palestine. It ranges as far north as there are forests, but in the extreme 



