TAWNY OWL. 61 



THE TAWNY OWL. 



S YRNIUM STRID ULA . 

 Cumhachag, Cailleach Oidhche. 



BEING for the most part resident in woods, this species is in con- 

 sequence restricted to districts where the larger plantations have 

 of late years increased so as to afford it, and other birds, the 

 protection which they require. The Tawny Owl, indeed, shows so 

 much helplessness and apparent stupidity in the day time that 

 without the privacy and security of dense woods it would fall an 

 easy prey. We find, therefore, that as our forests are spreading 

 there is a corresponding increase in the numbers of this bird, and 

 that although it was known to be a comparatively scarce species 

 throughout Scotland thirty years ago, it has now become a well- 

 known owl in suitable haunts from Wigtown to the north of Ross- 

 shire on the one hand, and from Banffshire to Berwick on the 

 other. 



I have met with it frequently in Ayrshire, Argyleshire, and 

 Inverness-shire, and have seen it also in some of the Ross-shire 

 woods, where it breeds. Mr Alston informs me that it is very 

 common in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, and Mr Brown states 

 that he has found it breeding regularly in a rocky crevice in 

 Torwood Forest, Stirlingshire. It has even of late years been 

 found on some of the Inner Hebrides specimens having been 

 met with on Mull and Islay. Mr Elwes has informed me that in 

 the last-named island it has only been seen in the large plantations. 



In the eastern counties it breeds in Aberdeenshire, where the 

 nest has been taken several times by Mr Angus. I have myself 

 found the species nesting in the woods near Auchinblae, in the 

 neighbouring county of Kincardine; the nest was a mere hollow 

 in the fork of a large tree about seven feet from the ground, and 

 was lined (accidentally perhaps) with a handful of withered leaves. 

 This owl sometimes lays its eggs in the deserted nest of a rook; 

 indeed, it seems partial to rookeries, as I have repeatedly procured 

 specimens when out " crow shooting " both in Ayrshire and East 

 Lothian. 



There is a great variation of plumage in this species, some being 

 of a dark grey, while others are of a bright rust-red colour this 

 diversity being common to both sexes, and apparently irrespective 



