﻿1 8 Birds 



Scotland, but is not known to occur in Ireland. The hooting of 

 the Tawny Owl is very distinct from the screech of the Barn Owl ; 

 the usual hoot is hooo-who-who-who-hoo, the first and last 

 syllables long drawn out. 



The usual nesting sites are ancient hollow trees covered with 

 ivy, old nests of hawks and crows, sometimes in rabbit burrows, 

 and occasionally on the bare ground under the shelter of an 

 overhanging fir or holly branch. Nesting begins about the middle 

 of March. The eggs number from three to five ; they are white, 

 smooth and glossy, and almost spherical in shape. 



The upper part of the plumage is ashen-grey, mottled with 

 dark brown and with large white spots on the wings and scapulars ; 

 the tail is barred with brown ; under-parts mottled with pale 

 brown and longitudinally streaked with dark brown ; facial disk 

 very large and complete, of a greyish colour with a mottled dark 

 brown rim ; bill whitish-horn colour ; irides almost black ; eyelids 

 pinkish ; claws brown, and toes covered with feathers. 



The female is similar to, but larger than, the male. Two forms 

 of colouring occur, one with the plumage rufous and one greyish. 

 The former is the type most usually met with ; the grey form 

 occurs chiefly in the eastern counties, and is supposed to be the 

 resident form. 



BAEN-OWL. 



Strix flammea. 



This beautiful and useful bird occurs throughout the greater 

 part of the British Islands, but becomes scarce in the north. 

 Although resident in this country, an immigration takes place in 

 the autumn on the east coast. The Barn Owl is perhaps the 

 most useful of all birds to the farmer, as it is the chief enemy of 

 rats and mice. In bygone times this was fully recognised by builders 

 of barns, who always left an opening at one end under the roof, 

 generally in the gable, known as the " owls' window," as an 

 entrance for these birds to keep down the mice and rats, which 

 form their chief food. Enormous numbers of these destructive 

 pests are destroyed by these birds, especially when feeding their 

 young. Lord Lilford watched a pair of Barn Owls carrying food 

 to the nest seventeen times in half an hour. 



To secure its favourite food, the Barn Owl pays nightly visits 



