THE EUROPEAN HAWK-OWL-~AMERICAN HAWK-OWL. 81 
examples of the European race may be expected to appear occasionally on our 
eastern coasts through some chance when the birds are migrating. 
As its name denotes, the Hawk-Owl comes near to the Falconide; it has a 
long, graduated, tail; short, sharp, wings; only incomplete facial disks; smaller 
ears than the night Owls, without an operculum, and flies about swiftly like a 
Hawk in the day-time, roosting in a tree at night. Its plumage is closer and 
more compact, and less downy, than that of other Owls. It is an abundant species 
in the pine woods in Lapland, and Wheelwright has given a good description of 
its habits. He says:—‘‘ The Hawk-Owl is by no means shy, and in the breeding 
season it is one of the boldest of all birds. Seated on the top of a dead pine, 
close to the nest where his mate is sitting, the old male bird keeps a constant 
watch, and as soon as any one appears to be approaching the nest, he raises his 
tail and head, after the manner of the Cuckoo, and uttering a shrill cry, not 
unlike that of the Kestrel Hawk, down he comes full on the head of the intruder; 
dashing by with the speed of lightning, he returns to the charge again and again, 
till he has either cleared the coast, or has paid the penalty of his rashness with 
his life. My lad was really frightened at this bird, and always hated to go up 
to a nest; and well he might, for on one occasion, when taking the eggs out of 
a dead pine, without a branch to help him, holding on, as the sailors say, ‘by 
his eyelids,’ forty feet from the ground, the old bird made a swoop down on his 
head, struck off his cap (through the top of which a large slit was cut) and in a 
moment returned to the charge, tearing off a very fair-sized claw-full of his hair. 
I was standing below, and knocked the old bird over; and had I not been at the 
bottom of the tree with my gun, the lad might easily have been beaten off his 
hazardous perch. There is no trouble in shooting the Hawk-Owl if you have 
only a dog in the forest; for, whatever time of year it may be, as soon as ever 
the bird spies a dog below him, it always descends to give battle. 
“The range of the Hawk-Owl in the north is precisely that of the Siberian 
Jay (Garrulus infaustus/—the lower fir forests at the foot and by the sides of the 
fells; you never, by any chance, meet with them out of the fir forests. In flight, 
manners, and appearance, the Hawk-Owl is closely allied to the Hawks. It is 
strictly diurnal in its habits, and to the stealthy quiet flight of the Owl adds the 
spirit and courage of the Falcon. Hardly a forest bird is safe from the attacks 
of these Owls. I have seen them strike down the Siberian Jay, their closest 
neighbour, on the wing, and more than once have I disturbed them feeding on 
an old Willow-Grouse, a bird half as large again as themselves. Their principal 
food appears to be birds, lemmings, and wood-mice; but I have often taken 
insects out of their stomachs. There is little difference in the plumage of the 
