70 A Pair of Long-Eared Owls. [Sess. 



Roost 8. Except for an inexplicable jump back to Roosts 1 

 and 2 on March 5, the birds now slept regularly in the 

 eastern trees — the male clinging to Roost 5, while the female 

 alternated between Roosts 7 and 8. On the 17th the male 

 changed to Roost 9, and there he remained until a tardy 

 realisation of his duties to the nest took him to Roost 10 

 on April 1. 



For the manner of the awakening of our pair of Owls we 

 may take a typical evening shortly after their arrival in 1910. 

 About twenty-five minutes after sunset, or just after the noise 

 of the last retiring Blackbirds had subsided, a faint nasal 

 whee broke the stillness of the Corner. This note is really 

 indescribable in syllables ; it is a kind of lachrymation, within 

 the compass, I believe, of a penny squeak, but not of the 

 English language ; it is the regular spring call of the female 

 Long-eared Owl. It was very low — barely audible — at first, 

 but grew louder and, as it seemed, more insistent. Then from a 

 neighbouring tree there came a louder note, oo — the response 

 of the male. Oo syllables it as well as any bird note can be 

 syllabled, but its length and depth varied greatly, so that 

 sometimes it seemed to die away in oo ugh, and again seemed 

 to stop abruptly with a consonant so that it sounded oop. 

 The female's note resembles no other bird note with which I 

 am acquainted, but the male's suggests in some respects the 

 soft coo of the Stock-dove. Both birds continued to call for 

 some time — the male probably less frequently than the 

 female, and not always, as it seemed, in direct response to 

 the female. Then he ceased altogether, while the female 

 continued very plaintively and at very regular intervals until, 

 after a very loud and petulant whee, she too fell silent. The 

 male was probably busy about his toilet, and we may presume 

 that the female became engaged likewise. Whatever they 

 did there was complete silence for five minutes. Then the 

 male suddenly left his perch and dived headlong among the 

 trees with loud repeated wing-claps. A few minutes later 

 the female also vacated her couch and careered in the same 

 wild wing-clapping flight through the trees. Both birds dis- 

 appeared towards the fields on the north-western side of the 

 wood and were not seen again. 



Similar procedure might have been witnessed almost any 



