SHORT-EARED OWL. 129 



or dense plantations, this bird frequents wide open fields, 

 extensive commons, heaths, and moors. A large propor- 

 tion of the specimens seen in this country are winter 

 visitors that come from the North of Europe with the first 

 favourable wind in October, and have in consequence been 

 called Woodcock Owls. There are few sportsmen who 

 have not occasionally met with this Owl when Partridge 

 shooting, towards the end of October, either in old grass 

 fields, barley stubbles, or turnips. It lies close, and when 

 obliged to move flies only a short distance, and is very 

 easily obtained. In winter, when the fields are bare, 

 it shelters itself in the bottoms of thick hedge-rows. From 

 its small-head and its habit of looking for food during 

 the day, Pallas calls this species Stris accipitrina, and 

 Hawk Owl is also a common name for it in this country. 

 Many of those that visit Great Britain in the autumn and 

 winter months, retire northward again in the following 

 spring ; but some few remain and breed, not only in the 

 Orkneys, in Scotland, and in some of the northern counties 

 of England, but even much farther south than has hitherto 

 been apprehended. 



Mr. Low says it breeds frequently in the island of Hoy, 

 one of the Orkneys, forming an artless nest among the 

 heath. Two young birds, nearly ready to fly, had been 

 supplied by the parent birds with a Moorfowl and two 

 Plovers. Sir William Jardine considers that many are 

 bred on the Scottish moors. In one locality in Dumfries- 

 shire, Sir William found two nests with five eggs. " They 

 were formed upon the ground among the heath ; the 

 bottom of the nest scraped until the fresh earth appeared, 

 on which the eggs where placed, without any lining, 

 or other accessory covering. When approaching the nest 

 or young, the old birds fly and hover round, uttering 



VOL. I. 



