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Early Nesting of House Sparrow (Passer 

 Domesticus) and presence of Long 

 Eared and Short Eared Owls 

 (Asia Otus Otus - Asio Flaoimens Flamme'us) 



About January 1st 1951? a cock and hen House 

 Sparrov/ vYere seen carrying nest "building raaterial In 

 the engine room of the pumping Station at Lower 

 Standen, In the afternoonj using binoculars, they 

 were seen to be repairing the last year's nest in the 

 roof. This work v/ent on for a fev/ days and later the 

 birds ceased to carry material. By January 29th, 1951 j 

 the hen was incubating five eggs. I had been keeping 

 a note on nest sanitation by sweeping up the ejected 

 faeces at three hourly intervals but my temporary 

 absence disturbed this. On returning on February 7th ^ 

 I again inspected the nest and found five young birds. 

 This nest was shov/n to Mr. Hughes of London Natural 

 History Society and Mr. W.S. Nevin of Hy the ^ who had 

 been v/atching three Long Eared Owls nearby in 

 Alkham Valley. I have now located four pairs of 

 Long Eared Owls also tv/o pairs of Short Eared Owls. 



W. HILL, D.S.M. 



