BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 13 



V, 



little doubt that it was an escaped bird from that 

 colony. 



22. OTUS BRACHYOTUS (Linnaeus). Short-eared Owl. 



Provincial. Woodcock Owl. 



A winter migrant, arriving on the east coast, often 

 in very considerable numbers, from the first week in 

 October to the middle of November. The winter of 

 1865-66 was characterized by large arrivals of these 

 Owls, when, after some heavy northerly gales during 

 the last fortnight in October, many appeared at 

 various localities along the eastern coast. By 110 

 means uncommon in the Humber marshes, where I 

 have seen as many as seven on the wing together. 

 Their chief haunts are the shorn stubbles, or the 

 long grass and reeds on the drain-banks anywhere, 

 in fact, where there is plenty of good dry cover. I do 

 not often find them in turnips. The open commons 

 and heaths bordering the Ashby decoy, Manton 

 Common and Twigmoor, and the wild district bor- 

 dering the Trent have always been favourite loca- 

 lities; and I am told that, in some seasons, from 

 twenty to thirty are flushed in the course of a day's 

 shooting. I have at various times on winter even- 

 ings, just at dusk, seen them beating round the ricks 

 in my marsh stack-yard for mice, and for the Spar- 

 rows roosting beneath the eaves. In the winter of 

 1870-71 one remained in the vicinity of the farm 

 for some months, living from the stacks; when a 



