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



character ; but it may have been something more, something 

 subtle and indefinable by our blunted senses, but something 

 which the Long-eared Owls recognised. We must remember 

 that birds, so far as their nesting habits are concerned, are a 

 highly specialised group, far more specialised in this respect 

 than in their food habits ; that they are fettered by a long 

 racial experience of certain nesting sites and certain nesting 

 environments — so fettered that the breeding distribution of 

 many birds like the Swallow is limited, within the range of 

 the species, by the distribution of suitable nesting sites and 

 not by the distribution of food supply. In a man-changed 

 country like this, artificial alteration has cleared the way and 

 provided nesting sites for many birds which must have had a 

 very precarious footing before the advent of civilised man ; 

 but such alterations have just as effectively closed the door 

 to many other species. Few of man's plantations can prob- 

 ably conform to the fragments of virgin forest which may 

 have been the Long-eared Owl's original home, but it is in 

 those which do, or which approximate to the primeval haunts 

 of his ancestors, that the Long-eared Owl will be found to-day. 

 In his preference for this Corner of old pines we may have 

 been witnessing a manifestation of a racial tradition stretching 

 back into remote antiquity. 



We may likewise have been watching a dynasty. Once a 

 pair of birds had proved the suitability of a wood and nested 

 in it, they would, if a sedentary and monogamous species, 

 make it their home throughout the year and so prevent 

 usurpation by another pair. Even if, like the Sparrow-hawk, 

 they did not live continuously in the nesting quarters during 

 the winter, they would tend to return to the old haunt in the 

 spring, and, as old birds acquainted with the site, the chances 

 are they would reach it earlier than possible usurpers, who 

 would be presumably young birds and therefore more tardy 

 in looking for a breeding-place. A mishap to one of the pair 

 would be made good by the survivor, and so a dynasty of 

 successive pairs would be established. 



Long-eared Owls had nested in this Scots pine Corner to 

 our knowledge in 1907 and 1908. In 1909 a single bird, 

 whose vocal efforts proved him to be a male, turned up on 

 February 7, and roosted regularly in a bushy Scots pine for 



