THE ZOoLoGist—NoveMBER, 1876. 5163 
on record. I recently purchased one, shot on the 28rd of May, 1871, by 
the keeper on Mr. Chaplin’s estate at Tathwell, near Louth, in North 
Lincolnshire. ‘This example is immature, and apparently in the plumage 
of the second year.—John Cordeaux; Great Cotes, Uleeby. 
Gregarious Habit of the Longeared Owl,—I had written a note for the 
* Zoologist’ on the above when I read one by Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., in 
the March number (S. 8. 4831), so I am glad to add my testimony to that 
gentleman’s observation. My note was written in connection with “ bird- 
screens,” for which there appears to be such a mania that I fear we shall 
lose some of our harmless indigenous birds. Numbers of owls, kestrels, &c., 
are destroyed for the gratification of this silly fashion, and I hope the traffic 
will be discouraged, for so long as people give great prices for such things 
the birds will be always forthcoming, and it seems a pity to destroy 
useful birds for so trumpery a purpose. The owls are likeliest to suffer in 
this slaughter, as both the long- and short-eared species are gregarious in 
winter. Should a company of long-eared owls be met with, the whole can 
be easily shot ; for, as I have seen when a cover has been driven, they only 
fly a few yards on the discharge of a gun. When disturbed by the beaters, 
and five or six are on the wing together, they resemble large moths, some 
of them flying out into the open as if lost, and after giving a turn or two in 
an unsettled manner, they return and pitch on the fir-branches close to you, 
turning their heads about and winking in their grotesque manner. The 
short-eared owl is also met with in companies, and I have on two or three 
occasions, when out shooting here, found nearly a score together, no doubt 
attracted by a plentiful supply of food—they were on waste ground where 
the coarse wet grass was tracked and tunnelled in all directions by the 
short-tailed field vole. I left them unmolested, but I daresay, had anyone 
been so disposed, every bird might easily have been shot.—F’. Boyes; 
Beverley, March, 1876. 
PS. The above, as will be seen, was written a long time ago, but had got 
mislaid.—F’. B. 
Gregarious Habit of the Longeared Owl.—The able reviewer of the 
‘ Birds of the North-West,’ after remarking that sometimes as many as a 
score of shorteared owls may be flushed in winter, goes on to say, “ but we 
have no other owls in our list which congregate;” and then he adds, 
“Dr. Coues [quoting Mr. T. G. Gentry] relates an instance of the longeared 
owl once forming a community” (Zool. 8.8. 5074). Whether the American 
longeared owl be distinct from the European or not, it appears that this 
occasional gregarious habit is not confined to it alone, for Mr. F’. Norgate, in 
one of the most interesting papers which has appeared in the ‘ Transactions’ 
of the Norwich Naturalists’ Society (vol. ii., part 2, p. 205), tells us of a flock 
of fifty which, on reliable authority, were seen at Stratton, near Norwich, in 
May, 1873. I have much pleasure in bringing this fact in the economy of 
