LONG-EARED OWL. 135 



it makes a vigorous defence, throwing itself on its back, striking 

 with its claws, and hissing and snapping with its bill. If provoked 

 only, it merely makes a querulous noise. A friend of Mr. 

 Thompson's, of Belfast, kept this and the preceding species 

 instead of cats, and found them more effective as destroyers 

 of rats and mice. They were, he says, 'very fond of having 

 their ears rubbed,' 



The food of this Owl consists of leverets, rabbits, rats, mice, 

 moles, sparrows, snipes, chaffinches, blackbirds, linnets, gold- 

 finches, and other small birds, which it is said to surprise 

 when at roost, as also of beetles and other insects. It seizes 

 its prey with its bill, with which it carries it if not large, 

 but if otherwise transfers it to its foot. 



Meyer says that the note is described by the word 'hook.' 



Nidification commences early in March. 



Other birds' nests, such as crows, magpies, and ringdoves, 

 are generally, if not always, fitted up by the one before us 

 as its domicile, by flattening them and lining them with a 

 few feathers or a little wool. It sometimes even locates itself 

 in that of a squirrel, and is not deterred by its not being far 

 from the ground. Trees give it its 'locus standi,' evergreens, 

 such as spruce, Scotch, and other firs, holly, and ivy, seeming 

 to be preferred, especially in large woods. Ivy-covered rocks, 

 and even the ground it also nestles on. It appears to be 

 thought by some that there is a difference of eight or ten 

 days in the laying of each egg, which are severally sat 

 on in the intervals, causing a corresponding difference in 

 the time of the young being hatched. 'The Long-horned 

 Owl,' says Mudie, 'generally takes possession of the deserted 

 nest of some other bird, such as one of the crow tribe, which 

 nestle earlier, and thus have their brood put of the nest by 

 the time that the Owl lays.' The Long-eared Owl, be it 

 remembered, lays in March, and though I think that Mr. 

 Macgillivray is rather too severe upon Mudie, whose work is 

 actually described by Mr. Neville Wood, as one of 'the two 

 best which have yet appeared!' yet I cannot forbear asking 

 here 'at what time does Rook-shooting commence?' If the 

 young Rooks have fled before March, they must have had but 

 a cold berth of it in February! Such an imagination as 

 this reminds me of a somewhat corresponding mistake developed 

 in an illustrated London, paper. 'Our own correspondent,' 'on 

 the spot' I suppose, was describing the circumstance of Her 

 Majesty's witnessing the process of 'shearing' in the Highlands 



