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



of subsequent observations it is easy to believe that it was the 

 male's example which took her to the Crow's nest that night. 

 The female certainly followed the male, and upon this occasion 

 with remarkable celerity. 



Two nights later, on March 4, the male went even more 

 directly about the business. He woke about the usual hour, 

 twenty-five minutes after sunset, and a few minutes later flew 

 into a tree very near to where we sat watching. After a short 

 pause here, during which he may have examined your humble 

 servants, but more probably performed the toilet he had pre- 

 viously omitted, he flew straight to the old Crow nest and 

 disappeared from view within its circumference. Almost 

 immediately the female, hitherto silent, left her roost and fol- 

 lowed him — but followed with the most exaggerated kind of 

 flight imaginable, better perhaps described as a sort of aerial 

 dance. It was no great distance from the roost to the nest, 

 but the female's zigzagging, wing-clapping course must have 

 trebled it. As soon as she had settled on the edge the male 

 abandoned the nest, flying down to a low bush quite near to 

 us, where he was dimly visible in the fading light. Here he 

 stayed while the female took possession of the nest. He 

 seemed to be waiting for her, and at first he was very patient 

 and silent, but when ten minutes had passed and the female 

 showed no signs of movement, faint oo's were audible, indi- 

 cative perhaps of impatience and the need for breakfast, or 

 only friendly signals of assurance of his continued presence. 

 Faint calls came occasionally from the nest, but the male never 

 directly responded to these. At length — to be exact, after 

 quarter of an hour — the female left the nest and flew out of 

 sight towards the north. The male immediately followed her, 

 and we saw no more of them that evening. 



Again the male had led the way to the nest, but this time 

 the female had been distinctly complaisant. The extent of 

 her feminine dalliance had been reduced to those weird 

 manoeuvres of flight by which she travelled from her perch to 

 the nest. The male might have flattered himself, as male 

 things do, that his will was about to prevail ; more probably, 

 as a bird of at least one year's experience (as we have 

 assumed him to be), he made due allowance for the consti- 

 tutional capriciousness of the sex, and in consequence was not 



