SHORT-EARED OWL. 167 



STRIX BRACIIYOTUS. 

 SHORT-EARED OWL. 



(PLATE 7.) 



^ ix noctua major, Brim. Orn. i. p. oil (1760). 



x accipitrina, Pall. Rcise Rut*, Rdchs, i. p. 455 (1771). 

 Xoctua minor, Gmi-l. Awr. C'omm. Petrp. XT. p. 447, pi. 12 (1771). 



ix brachyotus. Forst. Phil. Trans. Ixii. p. 384(1772): et auctorum plurimorum 



Gm-lii), Tf '\if, Xaumann, Temminck, Ruux, Sicainson, Richardson, 



Audubon. Schltgel, Yarrell, Sttnderalf, (Gould), (Gray), (Kattp), (Jerdon), (Gur- 



ney), (Hume), (Fin.*ch), (Sirinhoe), &c. &c. 

 Strix arctica. tyarrm. Mns. Carls, iii. pi. 51 (1788). 

 Strix palustris, Ii?ch*t. Xatttrg. Deutschl. ii. p. 344 (1791). 

 Strix tripennis, Schrank, Fauna Boica, i. p. 112 (1798). 

 Strix caspia, Steph. S/iatc's Gen. Zol. vii. pt. 2, p. 272 (1809). 

 Otus microcephalus. Leach. Si/.^f. Cut. ^famm. $c. Brit. Hits. p. 11 (1816). 

 Strix brachyura, Xilss. Oni. Suec. i. p. 62 (1817). 



Otus brachyoto? (F<*r-</.), Sfcph. State's Gen. Zool. xiii. pt. 2, p. -~>7 (1S26). 

 Strix sandwicl. v. Byron's Vuy. of H.M.S. ' Blonde,' A}>p. p. 250 (1826). 



Brachyotus palustris (Bechst.), Bonap. C'omp. List B. Eur. ^- A. Amer. p. 7 (1838). 

 Asio brachyotus ( 7 : iiU. Brit. Birds, iii. p. 461 (1840). 



lius brachyutu- (ft Wirb. Eur. p. xxxiii (1840). 



^andvicensis (Blo.rh.), Blyth, Ibis, 1863, -. 



Aio accipitrimis (Pall.). AVfrf. ed. Yarr. Brit. B. i. p. 163 (1872). 

 ulula, Linn, apud Boddaert, Gmelin, Pallas, Lesson, .Vc. 



The Short-eared Owl is a regular winter visitor to Great Britain and 

 Ireland,, and has not vet been completely exterminated from the fens, 

 where a few still breed. It is generally distributed on moorlands and 

 marshes in the north of England, Scotland, the Western Isles, the 

 Orkneys, and the Shetlands. 



Outside our islands its range is almost cosmopolitan. It appears to be 

 only a summer yisitor to Holland, North Germany, Scandinavia, and North 

 Russia, passing through France on migration. In South Europe it is 

 principally known as a winter visitant ; but in South Russia and the Cau- 

 casus many apparently remain to breed. It probably also breeds in some 

 parts of Africa, although its distribution there is comparatively little known. 

 It has been recorded from several parts of North Africa, is a regular 

 winter visitant to North-cast Africa, and an example has been obtained 

 in Natal. Eastwards it is a summer visitor throughout Siberia, passing 

 through Persia, Turkestan, and Japan on migration, and wintering in India 

 and Burma. It does not appear to have occurred in Australia, or in any 

 of the island of the Southern Pacific ; but it is said to be a resident 

 on the Sandwich Islands. On the American continent it is a summer 

 visitor to Alaska, Canada, and Greenland up to about lat. 70, wintering 



