THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 377 



"short" on hearing. On the contrary, his ear-parts are enormously devel- 

 oped. Part the feathers on the side of the head, bringing the ear-coverts 

 forward, and you will see it, an ear opening some two inches long — as long, 

 in fact, as the skull is high, and proportionately broad. 



It is more than a coincidence that these marsh-prowlers, the Harrier 

 and the Short-eared Owl, together with the latter's cousin, A. wilsonianus, 

 should be provided with such a remarkable auditory apparatus. When one 

 considers the circumstances of their life, the reason for this common provision 

 is very plain. In a thicket of reeds, especially if they are dry, one hears a great 

 deal more than he is able to see. Movement through grass or tules without 

 noise is almost an impossibility, even for the tiniest bird or mouse. Hence 

 it becomes important to locate any creature in the tangle by hearing. Surely 

 a Short-eared Owl could hear a bird-tick browsing at a hundred yards. 



Short-eared Owls are somewhat hawk-like in their appearance, whether 

 moving softly to and fro across the meadows, or watching from a convenient 

 post. They frequently gather in companies, and Mr. I. A. Field of Gran- 

 ville tells me that he has seen as many as fifty in the air at once over the cat- 

 tail swamps of the Licking Reservoir. 



The species is not uncommon in winter, but its nesting in the state was 

 not positively determined until Dr. Howard E. Jones found it breeding near 

 Circleville. Of this discovery he gives the following account in his "Nests 

 and Eggs of the Birds of Ohio" : "The first nest of the Short-eared Owl 

 that I ever found was on March 23rd, 1878. It was in a piece of marshy land 

 two miles from Circleville. I had just killed a snipe, and was looking for the 

 dead bird when, right at my feet, a Short-eared Owl flew up and soared in 

 the air high above me. Having recovered from my surprise I looked down, 

 and there were four eggs lying in a little depression, where the grass had 

 been eaten away by some cattle that were grazing in the field. A few feet 

 away the ground was some inches lower and very wet. Having done the 

 eggs up in my handkerchief, I remained some minutes to watch the owl, 

 which continued circling around the spot, some hundred feet overhead. Final- 

 ly she alighted in a distant part of the prairie, and I proceeded on my way. 

 Several more Owls were flushed during the next half hour, each of which 

 made long-continued circular flights before alighting. The following day I 

 hunted for Owl-nests over the same ground and found a second one in a 

 burrow, about a foot within the entrance, containing three eggs." 



