Plate XLV. 



Fig, 5. AS/0 ACCIPITRINUS-Short-eared Owl. 



In the fall, while Quail-shooting, and in the spring, while Snipe-shooting, I have frequently found 

 the Short-eared Owl in low, damp, grassy lands, and sometimes, also, in upland stubble-fields, occasionally 

 flushing several dozens from a few acres.' By the middle of April or the first of May they are no longer 

 found in flocks, but only here and there in pairs, the crowd having passed on to the North, leaving but 

 few of their number to breed. The eggs are laid about the first of April. I think but one brood is 

 reared during the season. 



LOCALITY : 



The nest is generally built in damp prairie-land that grows during the summer rank grass, which 

 when killed by the winter, becomes matted down, forming a close covering to the soil. In such a spot, 

 and there are many such in every county, occasionally a pair or several pairs of these Owls, at the proper 

 season, may be found nesting. 



POSITION: 



A natural depression in the ground is chosen in which to place the nest, or it is situated at the root 

 of a bush, beside a log, or in a burrow made by a rabbit or muskrat; usually it is in the first position 

 mentioned, unprotected even by any surrounding weeds. 



MATERIALS : 



The soft grasses which happen to cover the site selected ordinarily suffice for the nest, but sometimes 

 the bird will scrape together quite a handful of well dried grasses and weed-stems, and perhaps a few of 

 her own feathers, and, upon these, deposit her eggs, or sometimes she will lay upon the bare ground. 



EGGS: 



The complement of eggs varies from four to seven; four is the most I have ever found in a*set. 

 The shell is dull white, unmarked except by grass stains, mud, or the bird's excrement. The shell, never 

 very glossy, is usually quite unpolished. They measure in long-diameter from 1.50 to 1.70, and in short- 

 diameter from 1.15 to 1.25. A common size is 1.22 x 1.58. Sometimes they are elliptical, and sometimes 

 considerably more j>ointed at one end than at the other. 



DIFFERENTIAL POINTS : 



See Table. 



REMARKS : 



The eggs illustrated, Plate XLV, Fig. 3, were selected from four sets as representatives of the 



153 



