130 strtgtd.t:. 



Bird of Passage in aulumn and spring. Unlike A. otvs it 

 frequents open country, moors, and fens, and is not arboreal. 

 In England and Wales south of Lancushire and Yorkshire it 

 nests irregularly in many counties, while in Scotland, the 

 Orkney Islands, and the Outer Hebrides it is more common, 

 and breeds regularly in suitable localities. In the Shetland 

 Islands (where no species of vole is known to occur) it 

 rarely breeds. In Ireland it has not been known to nest, 

 but there, as elsewhere, it is generally distributed in winter, 

 and is especially numerous in years when voles are abundant. 

 General Dutribution. — The Short-eared Owl is nearly 

 cosmopolitan, inhabiting Europe, Asia, a large part of 

 Africa, and North and South America. It breeds from 

 Scandinavia up to 70° N. latitude eastwards to Kamchatka, 

 southwards to the Salvage Islands, Pyrenees, Italy, Sicily, 

 Malta, and south Russia. In winter it is found in S}>ain, 

 north Africa, west Africa, Abyssinia, and southern Asia. 

 It is occasional in the Faeroes, Iceland, and the Azores. In 

 west Siberia, Turkestan, and Transcaspia a somewhat paler 

 race has been recognised, and other allied forms occur in 

 the Hawaiian Islands and Galapagos Islands. 



Genus STRIX Linnceus, Syst. Nat. 1758, p. 92. 

 Type : S. aluco Linn. 



Stri,x = arpti, a Soreeoh Owl, in late writers, from tlie root of 7pi'?w=I cry 

 sharply or shrilly. 



Strix aluco. Tawny Owl. 



Strix aluco Linnceus, Syst. Nat. 1758, p. 93 : Sweden. 



Syrnium aluco (Linn.) ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds J3. M. ii. 1875, 

 p. 247 ; B. 0. IT. List, 1st ed. 1883, p. 87 ; Saunders, Manual, 

 2nd ed. 1899, p. 297. 



Aluco, a word formed, says Gesner, by Gaza (1476) from the Ital. Alocho, to 

 translate Aristotle's eXeos {H. A. viii. 3, 3). The modern Italian Allocco=a.n 

 Owl, is possibly cognate with Germ. Eule, Eng. " Owl." 



Dutrihution in the British Islands. — A Resident, generally 

 distributed in Great Britain, but becoming rare towards the 



