THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 65 
light reddish yellow prettily speckled and streaked with black, ash-colour, and 
white; the wings and tail are barred with black and grey; the tail is also 
speckled over with dusky and grey; facial disk pale yellowish-brown; ruff white 
at the base and tipped with black; under parts buff coloured, the feathers with a 
central black shaft, and slightly undulated with black; legs and toes covered with 
pale ochreous down. Beak and claws dark horn colour; irides orange yellow. 
The female is somewhat darker and larger than the male. In size the Long- 
eared Owl approximates to the Barn Owl, measuring from twelve to fourteen 
inches, according to sex. 
Family—S TRIGIDE. 
SHORT-EARED OWL. 
Asio accipitrinus, PALL. 
F the preceding species belongs exclusively to the wood-frequenting Owls that 
are only at home among the branches of trees with dense foliage, the Owl 
now to be treated of may be called a ground Owl, as it rarely, if ever, perches 
on trees, but inhabits moors and marshes, where it squats during the day, resting 
on the full length of its tarsi, among the tumps of coarse grass and rush. 
Although one of our resident species, it is chiefly confined to the northern parts 
of the Kingdom, and it is only in the autumn and winter that it is dispersed 
over the whole of our islands, when numbers cross into this country from the 
Continent, and, arriving at the same time as the Woodcock does, this Owl often 
goes by the name of the Woodcock Owl. It is commonly flushed by Snipe 
shooters in the winter, getting up at their feet out of any cover provided by the 
herbage, and is also frequently met with in turnip fields in October and 
November, and as setters will own and draw on the scent of these birds the 
VoL. HI iL. 
