TAWNY OWL. 151 



of three or four, are usually deposited in a hole in a tree, 

 and, according to Mr. Jenyns, are hatched in April. Mr. 

 C. B. Wharton, however, has recorded (Ibis, 1866, p. 324) 

 a nest which was placed on the ground, and Mr. Kobert Gray 

 says that it sometimes lays its eggs in the deserted nest of 

 a Kook. Occasionally here, and in Sweden not unfrequently, 

 it avails itself of the accommodation afforded by a barn or loft, 

 in a retired corner of which it will prepare its simple nest. 

 For a considerable time the young, covered with a greyish- 

 white down, are fed at home ; they afterwards perch among 

 the branches of trees near the nest, where the parents long 

 continue to feed them, and, until summer is far advanced, 

 the call of the Owlets, sounding like the word " keewick," 

 may be heard at intervals from the leafy shade. In cap- 

 tivity the young of this species are said to be more easily 

 reared than other Owls, being much less choice in the quality 

 of their food. The note of the adults, most frequently heard 

 in the evening and about an hour before dawn, is a loud, 

 clear hoot, by some persons considered melancholy, but in 

 the opinion of others more rightly termed by Shakespear 

 " Tu-whit ! to-who ! A merry note." In the act of hooting, 

 the Owls' throats, as remarked by Gilbert White, " swell as 

 big as a hen's egg." 



The Tawny Owl may be traced through all the counties of 

 England, but has not been recognized by practised ornitho- 

 logists as existing in Ireland. It occurs also in Scotland, 

 and there, unlike what is certainly the case in England, it is 

 said by Mr. Kobert Gray to be becoming commoner, owing 

 to the spread of plantations, so that, from having been a 

 comparatively scarce species thirty years ago, it is now well 

 known in suitable haunts from the Border to Ross-shire, 

 where it breeds, extending its range even to some of the 

 Inner Hebrides, as Islay and Mull. Low includes it among 

 the birds of Orkney that are seen in summer, but not in 

 winter. 



In Norway, according to Herr Collett, the Tawny Owl 

 is common in the southern and western parts up to the 

 Trondhjem fjord, and has even been obtained so far to the 



