198 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



The Heligolanders pursue this bird very zealously, and assert 

 that, roasted, they furnish the finest dish a man could wish for. 

 The birds are, as a rule, pretty fat, and their white flesh certainly 

 looks very tender and appetising. Naumann mentions the Marmot 

 as the largest quadruped which forms the food of this species ; it 

 will therefore be of interest to report that, under certain circum- 

 stances, this Owl will also attack wild rabbits. Early one autumn 

 morning, at the time of the Snipe migration, Old Oelk and myself 

 were not a little surprised to find, lying close together on the smooth 

 sand of a sandhill, the bloody remains of three freshly-killed wild 

 rabbits. In the immediate neighbourhood we shot afterwards five 

 Short-eared Owls, the contents of whose fully-distended crops, on 

 examination, proved them to be members of the band of robbers to 

 whom the poor rabbits had fallen a prey. This belief was further 

 confirmed by the footprints of the Owls which covered the smooth 

 sandy surface on which the remains of the rabbits were discovered. 

 All the flesh had been peeled off from the skins of the rabbits ; 

 these lay spread out with the hairy surface underneath, and there 

 remained adhering to them nothing but the skull, the backbone, 

 and the larger bones, all with the flesh completely and cleanly 

 eaten off. These remnants and the blood- marks were too fresh 

 to have been left from the previous day ; nor could we suspect 

 any other bird of prey to have perpetrated the deed, for when 

 we caine to the spot it wanted at least still another hour to 

 sunset. 



During dark autumn nights, when a strong migration is in 

 progress, and Larks, Thrushes, and other species swarrn round the 

 lighthouse in great numbers, this Owl may very often be seen dart- 

 ing up suddenly from the surrounding darkness into the glaring 

 light of the lantern, and with dexterous beatings of the wings 

 disappearing again with equal rapidity. Immediately afterwards, 

 the plaintive cry of a Thrush announces with what certainty this 

 robber plies his trade in the course of his nocturnal flight. 



In connection with this bird I should like here to record a 

 funny little story. Of the many descendants of Nimrod who visit 

 this island every season, one has for several years been in the 

 habit of regularly going round the cliff in a boat for purposes of 

 slaughter. One day, while thus engaged, a Sparrow-hawk happened 

 to fly past the face of the cliff. Our sportsman promptly fired ; 

 but, what did not greatly surprise the attendant boatmen, failed to 

 hit his bird. Great, however, was everybody's astonishment to see 

 an Owl, which had been sitting on the cliff' unobserved, drop down 

 suddenly, dead as a door-nail. 



The Short-eared Owl breeds in central and northern Europe, 



