1909-1910-] The Long-Eared Owl, 261 



termed the original C. wood pair, and found it deserted. The 

 two eggs remained. On the ground beneath the nest we 

 found a freshly killed long-tailed field-mouse. We attempted 

 to reconcile all these things — the deserted nest, the presence 

 of the eggs, the field-mouse. We failed, until late in the 

 summer the keeper on the beat informed us that he had shot 

 a Long-eared Owl at his pheasant-coops some time during the 

 nesting season. It might have been one of this pair, — that 

 would account for the desertion. The survivor, ignorant of 

 the fate which had befallen his (or her) mate, might still con- 

 tinue to bring food to the nest, — that would account for the 

 field-mouse. The eggs were still in the nest, because no 

 Crow or Magpie had so far discovered them. The plausi- 

 bility of this theory was further borne out by the absence 

 in later weeks of any evidence of young Long-eared Owls 

 in the wood. 



Misfortune of another kind overtook the quarry nest. On 

 May 10 we noticed that the bird was still sitting. On May 

 29 the nest was empty. In the interval which had elapsed 

 the keeper and his minions had been burning the thick 

 impenetrable privet cover which here undergrew the trees. 

 When the conflagration came to rage right underneath her 

 nest, we could imagine the old Owl would be scared. Some 

 instinct of self-preservation probably induced her to take 

 flight. Probably she was observed as she flew, — one of the 

 minions would accomplish the rest. We have no actual 

 knowledge of the circumstances. I give you the benefit 

 of another specious surmise — a surmise this time, be it 

 noted, which exonerates both the Owl and ourselves ! 



M. wood, which had disclosed a Long - eared Owl on 

 March 15, 1908, was also searched in the early spring of 

 1909, and on April 4 we flushed a Long-eared Owl from an 

 empty nest — a very ancient, nameless nest — in a spruce at the 

 northern end of the plantation. The emptiness of this nest 

 would not have been remarkable in view of past experience, 

 but on the ground below the nest we found the broken shells 

 of Long-eared Owls' eggs. The mysterious Nemesis which 

 dogged the Long - eared Owl seemed to have been at work 

 here before we arrived on the scene at all. We returned on 

 April 8 and found the nest deserted, but a few yards away we 



' VOL. VI. s 



