236 WOOD OWL. 



by year. It is to be found throughout the wooded 

 districts of the British Isles, but even in many of 

 these it is now but thinly distributed. In the New 

 Forest, for instance, it is by no means as common as 

 the Long-eared Owl. 



It is the Tawny Owl which gives utterance to the 

 long, weird, and ghostly " to-who-o-o-o " ; this is 

 shortly followed by a second cry resembling the first, 

 but tremulous, sounding like a loud mocking laugh. 

 It is, no doubt, this hoot which has caused the bird 

 to be looked upon as a bird of ill-omen, and its 

 proximity to any house is regarded as foretelling a 

 death about to occur within. 



The Wood Owl's haunts are in the depths of the 

 forests. Here in a rift in some old oak or elm it will 

 find a resting-place, where it may sleep through the 

 day, and from which it may issue at night to search 

 for its food. This bird is undoubtedly more of a 

 poacher than the Barn Owl, but still by far its com- 

 monest food consists of mice, rats, moles and frogs. 

 It does not always breed in its daily home, as some- 

 times it will roost in an old ivied wall or in the thickest 

 foliage of a pine or fir.* It generally breeds in a 

 cavity in a tree, but occasionally will breed in an old 

 Crow's or Magpie's nest, in a squirrel's drey, or even 

 in a rabbit burrow. 



* I once, when out for a woodland walk with a friend, re- 

 marked, on noticing a hole in the trunk of an elm [where a 

 huge bough had been torn off, that it would be a good hole 

 for an owl, and not thinking for a moment that my words 

 would come true, threw a stick at the place. Out flew a 

 magnificent Tawny, and immediately some dozen or two small 

 birds from the neighbouring trees started in pursuit. Round 

 him they flew, screaming and chattering, knowing they were 

 safe while their enemy was blinded in the sunlight, until the 

 whole flock was lost to sight in a neighbouring copse. 



