The Tawny Owl 



besides the items already mentioned, sometimes eomprises small fish, sueh as 

 loaches and bull-heads, and earth-worms, but there can be no doubt that short- 

 tailed field mice form the standing dish. The writer had numerous young 

 Pheasants close to the spots where his favourite Owls harboured, and is confident 

 that none of them were ever taken ; young rabbits would occasionally be 

 devoured, and instances are known of leverets being eaten, but mice and insects 

 are the favourite food. 



When it is hunting in the dark the eyes of the Tawn_\- Ow] scintillate like 

 red hot coals. One of the writer's tame birds settled within a few inches of his 

 head on a branch of a tree close to vi^hich he was standing in wait, at dusk, for 

 marauding magpies in a plantation, and the brilliant glare of its e3^es, directed 

 straight to the front, will never be forgotten. 



The Tawny Owl has the facial disk very large and complete, with a conspic- 

 uous and complete ruff; head extremely large and round; tarsi ver}^ short with the 

 toes densel}^ feathered ; wings long and much rounded ; tail broad, rounded, of 

 twelve arched and rounded feathers. The plumage, which in its general tints 

 closely matches those of the surroundings of the roosting place, is full and verj'' 

 soft ; reddish or greyish brown, mottled and longitudinall}' streaked with dark 

 brown ; on the wings and scapulars are some large white spots. The beak is 

 whitish-horn colour ; irides almost black ; eyelids edged with pink ; claws horn 

 white with darker tips. The female does not differ from the male, but is larger. 

 Length from fourteen to sixteen inches. Young birds are rather more rufous 

 than the adults in the red form, and are grey in the gre}- form. 



