CORACIIFOEMBS. 385 



eared Owl {Asio accipitrinus), and the Tawny Owl {Symium 

 cduco). 



The Bam-Owl {8. flammed) is common in most districts of 

 England, Ireland, and Wales, but less so in Scotland. This 

 useful bird takes up its abode in sheds and out-buUdings, in 

 church-towers and hollow trees, where it remains concealed dur- 

 ing the daytime. The back of the male is pale orange, varie- 

 gated with grey and white ; beneath the plumage is white, and 

 so are the discs, which are edged with orange ; the bill is white, 

 and the legs are clothed in soft white feathers. Some specimens 

 are much darker in plumage than others, a few quite dark forms 

 existing. The owl makes no nest, but just lays the dull white 

 eggs in pairs in April and May, and even later. It hunts for 

 its food at dusk, flying almost noiselessly along the hedgerows. 

 Its food consists of mice, rats, shrews, bats, and various large 

 insects. No harm whatever is done by the barn-owls, and yet 

 gamekeepers and many farmers persist in killing them although 

 they are their friends, and, having slaughtered as many as they 

 can, marvel at the increase of rats and mice ! 



The Tawny Owl (S. aktco), which in some places is quite as 

 common as the barn-owl, has the back shaded with ashy-grey 

 mottled with brown, the tail barred with brown and tipped 

 with white ; the lower plumage is yellowish-white streaked and 

 mottled with pale and dark brown ; discs grey with a dark- 

 brown border ; legs and feet have hairy feathers aU the way 

 down to the claws. The female is more red-brown in colour. 

 They lay in hollow trees and rooks' nests, as well as in similar 

 places to the barn owL If anything the tawny owl is more 

 useful than the preceding species - voles, rats, mice, and aU. 

 kinds of vermin being taken by it. It is especially abundant in 

 woody districts, and is sometimes called the wood-owl. 



Both Short- and Long-eared Owls {Ado accipitrinus and A. 

 otus) are common in this country, the former especially in open, 

 moorland tracts, but often over turnip- and stubble-fields. 

 Numbers come from the Continent in the autumn. It seldom 



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