y8 A Pair of Long-Eared Oivls. [Sess. 



might have been expected to evince an increased interest in 

 the nest as the season advanced, but a few nights later it 

 became evident that the purport of this ostensible apathy 

 had been obscured by our ornithological — perhaps also our 

 masculine — bias. She was a Long-eared Owl, with a Long- 

 eared Owl's methods, and must not be judged by any other 

 bird standard. 



On March 20 the male woke up at 6.30 — twenty minutes 

 after sunset — and went and worked in the nest for several 

 minutes. Then he left the nest and perched in a neighbour- 

 ing tree. Then he did an unprecedented thing — he returned 

 to the nest, but his second visit was almost as brief as his 

 first, and at 6.45 we saw him fly rapidly westwards out of the 

 wood. Meanwhile the female had been silent and invisible', 

 but soon after the disappearance of the male she flew into a 

 tree near the nest. She changed her position twice, but did 

 not go to the nest. At 7.5 she suddenly called loudly — a 

 clear note of welcome — and a moment later the male came in 

 from the north and flew straight to where she was perched. 

 Although the actual meeting between the two was obscured, 

 we had no doubt that the male delivered over the product of 

 his foraging. We heard a muffled whee, as if the female was 

 speaking with a full mouth, then the male reappeared flying 

 off towards the fields whence he had come, while the female 

 dropped to the ground, presumably to devour in comfort the 

 prey which she had just received. 



It was now plain to us that the female's neglect of the nest 

 foreshadowed the end of the pre-nesting 'period. She no longer 

 went out to hunt ; she had become dependent, wisely or un- 

 wisely, upon the male's exertions. What feelings lay behind 

 this neglect, what apprehensions, what misgivings, we do not 

 know ; we must be content with the general inference. And 

 that the latter was well founded was shown three days later, 

 March 25, when we found her sitting on the old Crow nest in 

 the middle of the day. On climbing to the nest we were not 

 surprised to find it empty, and that no further additions had 

 been made to the Phalaris material observed on February 27. 

 We knew from previous experience that Long-eared Owls 

 frequently brood their nest for several days before laying; one 

 bird, as I have recorded elsewhere, sat on her nest for fully a 



