i9i3" I 9 I 4-] A Pair of Long-Eared Owls. 69 



after all, is hardly less inscrutable than the mask afforded 

 by his contracted disc when asleep. They were not always 

 easily found during the daytime — in some of the fir tops 

 they could be quite invisible from the ground. 



In 1910 we made no serious effort to locate their diurnal 

 positions, but in 1911 we attempted a daily record of their 

 roosting-places during the pre-nesting period. The data thus 

 gathered is unfortunately not very complete, but what there 

 is of it gives no indication of any definite bias on the part of 

 either bird : it rather shows how free this pair of Owls were 

 from the tyranny of habit. The birds roosted as a rule on 

 separate trees — once in 1910 they were observed perched 

 Darby-and-Joan-like on the same branch, but such amiable 

 relations were distinctly unusual. In 1911, after roosting 

 regularly for a week on trees which I shall call Eoosts 1 

 and 2 (see map), which were close together at the western 

 side of the Corner, one of the birds suddenly began to use 

 Eoost 3, a tree some distance away. We could only be 

 certain on a few occasions of the sex of the birds which 

 occupied the various roosts, but in attempting to account 

 for this sudden change you may have the benefit of the 

 following : The bird which first used Eoost • 1 we know 

 to be the male, but on February 11 it was the female, so 

 that an exchange of roosts had obviously taken place. The 

 reason and manner of the exchange we do not know, but 

 is it not significant that two days later the male should 

 be in Eoost 3, fifty yards away, while the female is still 

 in possession of Eoost 1 — that highly desirable patriarchal 

 roost with its memories of former years ? Eoost 3 was used 

 regularly for some time, then fitfully, and considerable 

 irregularity ensued, when we frequently failed to find both 

 birds. On February 24 Eoost 5 was requisitioned, and on 

 the 26 th you have an opportunity of deducing very strained 

 relations indeed — the female being in Eoost 5, while the 

 male was in Eoost 3, trees fully 100 yards apart. On 

 the following day, however, peace had evidently been restored, 

 both birds having returned to Eoosts 1 and 2. But it was 

 only for the day; on the 28th one of the birds was back 

 in Eoost 5, and on March 2 both birds were noted in this 

 quarter of the wood — the male in Eoost 5, the female in 



