410 BRITISH BIEDS. 



specimens are much darker in plumage than others, a few 

 quite dark forms existing. The owl makes no nest, but just 

 lays her 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 Oiol (S. aluco), 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 all the 

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

 colour. They lay their eggs 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 all 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 {Axio accijiifrinus 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 

 breeds here. Unlike most owls, the "short-ear" will take its 

 prey in the daytime. Mice, rats, birds, and reptiles, also 

 insects, are taken by it, and it is said fish also. It may often 

 be put up in the autumn when shooting, aiid flies off with 

 great rapidity. The Long-eared Owl is chiefly found in fir 

 plantations. There it hunts for its prey during the night, and 

 clears off much vermin. Although fairly common all the year, 

 it is much more so in autumn, owing to migrations from the 

 Continent. It breeds in old birds' nests and squirrel-dreys. 



