SHORT-EARED OWL. 129 
or dense plantations, this bird frequents wide open fields, 
extensive commons, heaths, and moors. A. large propor- 
tion of the specimens seen in this country are winter 
visitors that come from the North of Europe with the first 
favourable wind in October, and have in consequence been 
called Woodcock Owls. There are few sportsmen who 
have not occasionally met with this Owl when Partridge 
shooting, towards the end of October, either im old grass 
fields, barley stubbles, or turnips. It lies close, and when 
obliged to move flies only a short distance, and is very 
easily obtamed. In winter, when the fields are bare, 
it shelters itself in the bottoms of thick hedge-rows. From 
its small-head and its habit of looking for food during 
the day, Pallas calls this species Stris accipitrina, and 
Hawk Owl is also a common name for it in this country. 
Many of those that visit Great Britain in the autumn and 
winter months, retire northward again in the following 
spring; but some few remain and breed, not only in the 
Orkneys, in Scotland, and in some of the northern counties 
of England, but even much farther south than has hitherto 
been apprehended. 
Mr. Low says it breeds frequently in the island of Hoy, 
one of the Orkneys, forming an artless nest among the 
heath. Two young birds, nearly ready to fly, had been 
supplied by the parent birds with a Moorfowl and two 
Plovers. Sir William Jardine considers that many are 
bred on the Scottish moors. In one locality in Dumfries- 
shire, Sir William found two nests with five eggs. “‘ They 
were formed upon the ground among the heath; the 
bottom of the nest scraped until the fresh earth appeared, 
on which the eggs where placed, without any lining, 
or other accessory covermg. When approaching the nest 
or young, the old birds fly and hover round, uttering 
VOL. I. K 
