70 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
roost, to which he invariably returns; the same Owl has been known to occupy 
the same perch for many years. The writer had numerous Tawny Owls residing 
round his house in Wales in a semi-domesticated state; during the day some of 
them were frequently observed roosting on the roof among the chimney pots ; 
the favourite stations of others were well known in their various trees, so that 
when friends came who wished to see the Owls they could be readily found and 
exhibited. Occasionally they would be in evidence sunning themselves on bare 
branches in the early spring, at which season not only would they hoot through- 
out the day, but also continually made a soft, shivering, mating call. The 
impudent Jays would closely imitate them, or else, heading a party of Mistle 
Thrushes, Chaffinches, and Tits, would mob and tease one of the Owls until they 
compelled him to shift his perch; this is a common woodland episode. The 
Tawny Owl nests in March or April, either in a hole in a tree, or in an old 
Crow’s nest; sometimes in a chimney, or empty dove-cote; occasionally in a 
rabbits’ earth under ground. The eggs are larger than those of any other 
English Owl, are white, smooth, glossy, and suboval in shape; they are from 
three to five in number, and measure from 1°96 to 1°68 inch in length, by from 
164 to 143 inch in breadth. The nest needs to be cautiously approached, as 
the Tawny Owl will valiantly defend its abode, and is particularly fierce after the 
Owlets are hatched, when the old birds will sally out to buffet anyone who passes 
near. One of the entrances to a house belonging to a friend of the writer was 
closed for a time owing to a pair of Tawny Owls that had their nest in a fine 
elm by the gate refusing to permit anyone to approach without attack; and boys 
who have robbed nests of the young have been seriously injured, their eyes 
scratched and torn out. The nestlings are at first covered with a yellowish grey 
down, barred with sooty brown. ‘The young birds, 
” 
to quote Lord Lilford once 
more, “are easy to rear, become very tame, and, from their solemnity of 
expression and the grotesque attitudes which they assume, are among the most 
satisfactory inmates of an aviary.” 
The Tawny Owl is distributed in all the wooded parts of the British Isles, 
with the exception of Ireland, where it is said not to occur. There are two 
common forms in which it is met with, a red plumage, and a grey; the rufous 
form is the ordinary Red Owl most usually met with; the grey plumaged birds 
are more common in the eastern counties of England, where they are not to be 
regarded as migrants from the Continent, but as residents, as is proved by young 
birds in the grey plumage having been taken from the nest. The Tawny Owl 
is distributed throughout Europe and Western Asia; the majority of the foreign 
Owls of this species belong to the grey form. The diet of the Tawny Owl, 
