i9i3" I 9 I 4-] A Pair of Long- Eared Ozv Is. 89 



period, but both notes now grown rather rusty. This prey 

 was likewise taken to the nest. At 8.50 the male was back 

 with a fourth capture, but at first he did not seem to see his 

 mate, who had altered her perch, for he hesitated for a brief 

 moment before flying to her tree. And then there was a 

 very pretty little demonstration of affection — the female re- 

 ceiving the prey with a low whee and fluttering of wings, just 

 as many birds receive the love-offerings of their mates in the 

 pre-nesting days, and just as she probably had done, although 

 we never had the good fortune to see it done in good day- 

 light. As soon as the male had gone she flew to the nest 

 with the prey, but she did not deliver it there. Instead, 

 she wheeled round and presented it to the enterprising- 

 youngster who had scrambled out of the nest on to an 

 outlying branch. A few minutes later this youngster, ap- 

 parently unable to cope with his meal under such precarious 

 conditions, clambered back into the nest ; but shortly after- 

 wards either this bird or another of the family scrambled up 

 to a branch above the nest, from which coign of vantage it 

 could, doubtless, command a fine view of its homeward-bound 

 parent. At nine o'clock the male came in for the fifth time, 

 and again the mother acted as intermediary, taking the prey 

 this time to the nest. Shortly thereafter darkness set in and 

 we left the wood. 



In the hour and a half during which we had watched we 

 had seen the male come in five times, and this was his regular 

 rate in 1911. As a rule he carried the prey in his bill, but 

 once we saw him follow the 1910 precedent and transport it 

 in his talons. He never went and fed the young directly as 

 he had done in the previous year. The work of distributing 

 the prey was done entirely by the mother bird, and so long 

 as any of the young birds remained in the nest she took no 

 part in the hunting. It is rather curious that throughout the 

 whole of the nesting period of 1911 neither bird uttered the 

 ' hoarse ' note which was so prominent in the feeding opera- 

 tions of 1910. Instead, we had those weird wows and 

 oo-wachs which had been very rarely used in the preceding 

 season. The oo-wack we had heard in connection with other 

 Long-eared Owl nests in other woods, but the wow was an 

 item in the Long-eared Owl's vocabulary which was new to 



