40 THE SHORT-EARED OWL 



although the number of eggs laid by this bird (the Short- 

 eared Owl) is generally four, yet, when food is unusually 

 abundant, as during a lemming-migration, the number 

 in a clutch will rise to seven or eight, and during the 

 recent vole plague in Scotland larger numbers were 

 recorded, reaching as many as thirteen." 



As many as ten and twelve eggs were often found on 

 some hill farms where these Owls remained feeding all 

 the winter and commenced nesting in March, the birds in 

 many cases nearing a second brood. 



Mr. Colles, of Higher Broughton, Manchester, 

 speaking of the Short-eared Owl, said in a letter 

 to his friend (R. Bosworth Smith) : " You will 

 remember that a few years ago certain parts of the 

 country (Scotland) were infested with voles to such an 

 extent that the sheep would not eat grass over thousands 

 of acres of moorland. It was some two years after they 

 had been at their worst that my son and I were fishing 

 in St. Mary's Loch ; and one day, about noon, while I 

 was crouching down between the high banks of the 

 Meggett, to keep out of sight of the fish, a Short-eared 

 Owl skimmed over the top of the bank directly to the 

 place where I was; and I can assure you that no 

 exaggerated comic picture of an Owl I had ever seen 

 affected me as did this one. Its eyes looked to me as 

 large as saucers, and the bird seemed a perfect ogre. 

 A few days later we were fishing one of the tributaries 

 of the Tweed near its source, and had to walk a mile 

 or so, on almost flat moorland, where there was hardly a 

 bush, much less a tree, to be seen. Wherever there 

 was rise enough in the ground to form a little bank the 

 soil was perfectly honeycombed with what appeared 

 miniature colonnades or rather cloisters, and we caught 



