68 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
feathers nearest to the eye black; ruff yellowish-white, speckled with blackish-brown ; 
beak and claws blackish; irides bright yellow. The female is darker than the 
male, and is larger; length from twelve to fourteen inches. Young birds are 
much darker in plumage than the adults. There is a considerable variation in 
the colour of plumage; the writer has seen some old birds that looked quite 
white when on wing. Seebohm considered these very light coloured birds to 
belong to an Arctic race. 
Lord Lilford writes “‘I have kept a few of these birds in confinement, but 
with one exception, never succeeded in really taming them. The exception was 
a most delightful bird, which would follow me about, come to whistle, and sit 
upon and feed from my hand, but did not live long.” Wheelwright, in his 
‘‘ Spring and Summer in Lapland,” states that the loud cry of the Short-eared 
Owl, wau-au, is like the barking of a dog, and that it indulges in curious gyra- 
tions in the air while flying over the fells in the light summer nights that are 
not unlike those of the Peewit. 
Family—S TRIGIDA. 
Tawny OWL. 
Syrntum aluco, LINN. 
HE Tawny Owl, Brown Owl, Red Owl, Wood Owl, or Hooter, to mention 
its most familiar aliases, possesses the distinction of being the largest of 
the native English Owls, and, in most parts of the kingdom, it is still the 
commonest species. It is a matter of regret that this fine Owl, and most useful 
