THE TAWNY OR WOOD-OWL. 

 (Syrnium aluco.) 



The Wood Owl, known also as the Brown or Tawny 

 Owl, has the admirable trait of constancy, for it is said he 

 mates for life and the pair return year after year to the 

 same tree to nest. In the month of September you will 

 hear him hooting in the woods more than at any other 

 time of the year. He is not so constant in his choice of 

 locality, but like many other birds he and his kind will 

 disappear from a district without any apparent reason, 

 to return to it again after a time. No doubt they follow 

 their food supply ; the small creatures they feed on 

 mice, rats, shrews, and squirrels all disappear in the 

 same fashion to re-appear elsewhere ; the movements of 

 these being no doubt ruled by the same conditions of 

 suitable food, its scarcity or its plenty. 



In spite of persecution the Tawny Owl is still fairly 

 common in our own country wherever there are woods 

 or crags suitable for its habitat. In the South of 

 Scotland it is common, as well as in England and Wales. 

 It is strange that it seems to be absent from Ireland. 

 Here, in Baling, where the present writer lives, its 

 whoo-hoo, or, as Shakespeare has it, tu-whit and to-ivho, 

 are heard regularly in one little spinney at the south-east 

 corner of our suburb; and last summer 1908 a pair 

 took up their abode in a garden, right in amongst the 

 shady roads not very far from the Broadway. 



The Tawny Owl breeds early ; strong-flying young 

 ones may be seen in April. A hollow oak tree or an 

 elm is a favorite nesting site with it. The young are 



