SHORT-EARED OWL. 165 



are able to rise from the ground." The eggs of this bird, 

 seldom exceeding from three to five in number, are smooth 

 and white, measuring from 1*74 to 1'37 by 1*33 to 1*15 in. 



Small quadrupeds and small birds with, according to 

 M. Florent-Prevost, at certain seasons beetles and other 

 insects, form the principal food of this Owl. Montagu 

 found fragments of a Sky-Lark and of a Yellow Bunting 

 in one and Thompson the legs of a Dunlin in another, 

 while the supply provided for some nestlings was, according 

 to Low, a Moorfowl and two Plovers. In the stomach of 

 one examined by myself were a half-grown rat and portions 

 of a bat. Mr. Swinhoe (Ibis, 1861, p. 26) states that an 

 example he procured in China contained a few fish-bones. 

 But undoubtedly field-mice and especially those of the short- 

 tailed group or voles are their chief objects of prey, and 

 when these animals increase in an extraordinary and un- 

 accountable way, as they sometimes do, so as to become 

 extremely mischievous, Owls, particularly of this species, 

 flock to devour them. Thus there are records of " a sore 

 plague of strange mice " in Kent and Essex in the year 

 1580 or 1581, and again in the county last mentioned in 1648. 

 In 1754 the same thing is said to have occurred at Hilgay 

 near Downham Market in Norfolk, while within the present 

 century the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire and some 

 parts of Scotland have been similarly infested. In all these 

 cases Owls are mentioned as thronging to the spot and ren- 

 dering the greatest service in extirpating the pests. The 

 like has also been observed in Scandinavia during the won- 

 derful irruptions of lemmings and other small rodents to 

 which some districts are liable, and it would appear that the 

 Short-eared Owl is the species which plays a principal part 

 in getting rid of the destructive horde. An additional fact 

 of some interest was noticed by Wolley, namely that under 

 such circumstances the Owls seem to become more prolific 

 than usual, and on two occasions it came to his knowledge 

 that as many as seven eggs must have been laid in one nest 

 of this species, so that the statement of Hutchins, cited by 

 Richardson, that in the Fur-countries it lays ten or twelve 



