6S British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



feathers nearest to the eye black ; ru£f yellowish-white, speckled with blackish-brown ; 

 beak and claws blackish ; irides bright 3'ellow. The female is darker than the 

 male, and is larger ; length from twelve to fourteen inches. Young birds are 

 much darker in plumage than the adults. There is a considerable variation in 

 the colour of plumage ; the writer has seen some old birds that looked quite 

 white when on wing. Seebohm considered these very light coloured birds to 

 belong to an Arctic race. 



Lord Lilford writes ''I have kept a few of these birds in confinement, but 

 with one exception, never succeeded in really taming them. The exception was 

 a most delightful bird, which would follow me about, come to whistle, and sit 

 upon and feed from my hand, but did not live long." Wheelwright, in his 

 " Spring and Summer in Lapland," states that the loud cry of the Short-eared 

 Owl, ivau-ai(, is like the barking of a dog, and that it indulges in curious gyra- 

 tions in the air while fl3'ing over the fells in the light summer nights that are 

 not unlike those of the Peewit. 



Family— S TRIGID.-E. 



Tawny Owl. 



Svririm/i aliico, LiNN. 



THE Tawny Owl, Brown Owl, Red Owl, Wood Owl, or Hooter, to mention 

 its most familiar aliases, possesses the distinction of being the largest of 

 the native English Owls, and, in most parts of the kingdom, it is still the 

 commonest species. It is a matter of regret that this fine Owl, and most useful 



iitftH 



