LONG-EARED OWL. 161 



broad longitudinal streaks on the centre of the back and scapulars being 

 finely mottled like the rest of the feather. On the underparts, especially 

 on the feathers of the flanks, the transverse bars are straighter, broader, 

 and more distinct in the American than in the European species. My 

 collectors have not yet sent me skins from Siberia, nor have I seen an 

 example from Archangel, where the bird is said to be very rare; but it is 

 extremely probable that a pale northern form occurs. 



The Long-eared Owl is an inhabitant of woodland districts, and is espe- 

 cially fond of spruce and Scotch firs ; and since the planting of these trees 

 has greatly increased it seems that the bird has extended its range in a 

 corresponding degree. Large woods are not at all necessary to this 

 species, and a pair will very frequently take up their abode in the small 

 fir-plantations and in the clumps of trees on the borders of the forest. 

 Large game-coverts are also favourite haunts of this bird ; but it does not 

 appear to frequent ruins, barns, or other buildings. It is a resident in this 

 country, and is a strictly nocturnal bird, rarely straying from its roosting- 

 place till dusk. "When seen abroad in the daytime, however, it seems to 

 be but little troubled by the glare of sunlight. Its retreat in the daytime 

 is usually amongst the foliage of a dense tree close to the trunk, or in a 

 clump of ivy, from which it sallies in search of food as the evening's dusk 

 is falling. Its flight is like that of all the Owls, a buoyant but slow and 

 wavering one ; and although it is by no means a noisy bird, it repeatedly 

 calls upon the wing. My friend Xorgate informs me that he has heard 

 this species uttering a note like the barking of a spaniel as it flew round 

 him over the pine-woods; and he also tells me that it has another note, 

 somewhat similar to the mewing of a young kitten, and which can be 

 heard fully a mile off. He supposes this note to proceed from the young 

 birds. 



The food of the Long-eared Owl is largely composed of rats, mice, voles, 

 and occasionally beetles and insects. It also takes the smaller birds 

 those species that are to be seen abroad late in the evening catching them 

 a< it skims past them in the dusk. The Yellow Bunting is often to be 

 seen on the hedgerows long after sunset ; and its remains are often found 

 both in the nest and also near the roosting-place of this Owl. It may 

 also obtain rnauy small birds by disturbing them from their perches in its 

 nocturnal wanderings. 



Of the migratory movements of the Long-eared Owl but little can be 

 said. It seems not to journey in such large flocks as its congener 

 the Short-eared Owl. although a man once told Norgate that he had seen 

 as many as fifty fly from one tree in the daytime ! It also makes its 

 appearance ou^iur coasts much later in the year, sometimes not until 

 the beginning of December ; but Mr. Cordeaux informs me that a pair 

 of these birds were obtained at Spurn in 1881 during the last week in 



VOL. I. M 





