82 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



male aud female, but the latter is rather the larger ; and iu the breeding-season 

 I have observed that the breast and belly of the female is strongly tinged with 

 reddish-brown. The male takes his turn at sitting (as is the case with the Wood- 

 pecker) for I have shot both as they flew out of the hole from the eggs. The 

 Hawk-Owl moults very early, as do many of the northern birds. Like the 

 Siberian Jay, the old birds may be seen in deep moult, without tails, even before 

 the young are flyers ; and in both the autumnal moult is complete as soon as 

 the young birds are full feathered. The Hawk-Owl is then in its best plumage, 

 and its clean, pure, shiny dress at that season is very different from the dingy 

 colouring of spring. 



"The nest is always in a hole in a rotten pine or fir, sometimes at a con- 

 siderable height from the ground. On June 13th, I took a clutch of the Hawk- 

 Owl with eight eggs — probably a second clutch from a bird whose first nest had 

 been robbed, for we seldom found fresh eggs after the second week in May, and 

 early in June we shot young flyers. The eggs are always laid, like those of the 

 Woodpecker, in a hole, with nothing under them but a few dry splinters and 

 chips of the rotten or fresh wood, as the case might be. The eggs of the Hawk- 

 Owl very often so much resemble those of the Short-eared Owl, that one might 

 well pass for the other ; but they are in general a little smaller, more elongated 

 and pointed at the small end, of a deep dirty white. Usual size — 1;| inches by 

 i^ inches." The young, like those of many Owls, are hatched in succession. 



According to the character given it by Lord Lilford the Hawk-Owl is not an 

 amiable inmate of the aviary ; some eight he received from Helsingfors were 

 " very fearless and savage, very quarrelsome among themselves, always wide awake 

 and ready for food, and constantly uttering a very melancholy and unpleasant 

 cry." One of these birds, through the kindness of Lord Lilford, is now in the 

 writer's collection, mounted in a very life-like and characteristic attitude.* 



The prevailing colours of the Hawk-Owl's pkimage are blackish-brown, spotted 

 and barred with white. The head, which is large and very flat on the top, is 

 blackish-brown, profusely speckled with small white spots ; space round the eye 

 whitish, broadly edged with blackish ; either side of nape blackish, with a large 

 central white spot ; a ring of white spots across the top of the back, which is 

 blackish, some of the feathers edged with white ; tail blackish-browu, with numer- 

 ous narrow bands of white, and tipped with white ; patches of Avhite on the 

 shoulders ; wings blackish, barred and blotched with white ; upper part of breast 

 almost entirely Avhite ; remaining under parts whitish, with numerous narrow bars 



* Mr. Frohawk's illustration is taken from this bird. 



