26o The Long-Eaj-ed Owl. [Sess. 



Owl flew from the nest. We had thought — proud boasters 

 that we were — that a Long-eared Owl could no longer sur- 

 prise us. This one certainly succeeded. We stood amazed, 

 wondering if we had seen aright, wondering if this was not 

 some phantom created by our ruminating minds. There was 

 quite a distinct interval of time before we collected our wits 

 sufficiently to climb to the nest. It contained two eggs ! 

 We had considered this bird early in 1908, when it had three 

 eggs on March 15 ; it had surpassed that record by ten days 

 at least — quite a bird-book record. 



A week later this same bird was still sitting on the same 

 nest. On March 6 we put her off, and found the nest 

 contained three eggs — a very small clutch, if the complete 

 one, for a Long-eared Owl. On March 14 she was no longer 

 sitting on the nest, and the eggs had been reduced to two. 

 On our next visit these had also disappeared. This piece- 

 meal method of disappearing was a slight variation from the 

 normal course of events, but hardly more enlightening. From 

 that day to this we have seen no Long-eared Owls in the 

 Thicket. 



The early nesting of the Thicket birds inclined us to hope 

 that the other Long -eared Owls in the district would be 

 relatively early also, and once, and sometimes twice a-week, 

 we made a tour of inspection round the old nests in the 

 other woods. C. wood birds had laid as early as March 

 19 in 1907, and we paid particular attention to their old 

 quarters. No signs of Long-eared Owls were observed in 

 this wood, however, until April 4, when we disturbed a 

 bird from the old Magpie nest already used on two former 

 occasions. On climbing, we found two eggs, — ^ proof in 

 abundance that Long-eared Owls are as individualistic in the 

 time of their laying as they are in ever)' other department 

 of nidification. On the same day we disturbed another 

 Long-eared Owl from an empty nest in the same wood. This 

 nest was built in a Scots fir growing on the edge of the 

 quarry pond which C. wood in a measure surrounded. On 

 April 8 we found this bird sitting, not on the nest, but 

 beside it. On April 28 she was sitting on four eggs, and 

 on the same day we spotted her mate perched in the very 

 next tree. On May 10 we revisited the nest of what may be 



