$6 A Pair of Long-Eared Owls. [Sess. 



the feeding pace. Again and again we spent from one to 

 two hours in the Corner, not only at sunset, but later on and 

 even into the small hours, and never saw him come in oftener. 

 Sometimes we spent a couple of hours and never saw him 

 come in at all. When he did come in it was always in the 

 same manner — from the north, with the prey carried in his 

 talons — the nearest approach to routine we had seen in the 

 whole of his behaviour. Sometimes he perched before going 

 to the nest, and uttered the curious sound which I have 

 called the ' hoarse ' note — a note which certainly defies 

 description if not imitation, being not unlike the noise made 

 by a man clearing his throat when in the throes of a bad 

 cold. It was a sound which we had never heard before the 

 hatching of the young, and apparently it was only employed 

 in connection with the young. At first we were inclined to 

 regard it as a fatherly signal announcing the male's return or 

 his departure, but later we decided it was a cry of warning 

 proclaiming our presence in the wood. Otherwise our presence 

 did not seem to disturb the male very much ; sometimes he 

 showed no sign of being aware of it, and he never wasted 

 very much time in reaching the nest with his spoil. This 

 latter was invariably transferred from his talons to his bill 

 when he alighted on the nest, and then given directly to one 

 of the young. The nestlings usually heralded his arrival with 

 a baby edition of the young Long-eared Owl's hunger call, a 

 note which waxed louder as they grew older, but the mother 

 bird hunched up at the back of the nest regarded all his 

 visits with a kind of stolid impassivity. As if conscious of 

 this attitude on the part of his mate, the male rarely stayed 

 more than a few seconds at the nest, his departure, in contra- 

 distinction to his arrival, being always towards the west. 



After she had ceased to brood the young, this attitude of 

 the mother bird underwent some change; and on June 21, 

 the first day she was not on the nest, we saw the male 

 deliver the provender, contrary to custom, to his mate in 

 person. A day or two later she had begun to assist the male 

 in the work of foraging, but even the joint efforts of the two 

 parents did not ensure very frequent visits to the nest ; and 

 on June 28 we were not greatly surprised to find that only 

 two youngsters had survived the ordeal of infancy. It is 



