LONG-EARED OWL. 29 



LONG-EAEED OWL. 



Asio otus. 



I CAN say little from my own observation respecting this 

 species. It is dispersed, in moderate numbers, throughout 

 this county, especially in places where there are old Scotch 

 firs, or thick plantations of younger trees of either these 

 or spruce. 



I remember once seeing three young birds, nearly ready 

 to fly, sitting in a line, on the flat branch of a spruce, in a 

 small wood at Blackstone, near Henfield. As these could 

 never have flown from one tree to another, I have little doubt 

 that there was a nest in the same tree, but it was surrounded 

 by an impenetrable mass of brambles and blackthorn, and 

 too thick to see through. 



Mr. Gould, in his 'Birds of Great Britain,^ after speaking 

 of the number of pellets ejected by this Owl, which he had 

 examined, makes this remark: — "But I am bound to men- 

 tion that never in a single instance have I discovered a trace 

 of any game bird, and I feel assured that the keepers, who 

 wage war against the Long-eared Owl for the protection of 

 their young pheasants or partridges, are not only giving 

 themselves unnecessary trouble, but are also guilty of the 

 folly of exterminating their best friends, for the number of 

 rats destroyed by this species is enormous, and I look upon 

 the rat as the game-preserver's worst enemy .^' 



I have seen specimens from Parham Park, and I was told 

 by a gamekeeper that they had bred there for several years 

 in succession, in the tops of the lofty old Scotch firs. I have 

 seen other examples from various parts of the county, and 

 have in my own collection one shot at Henfield, in July 



