The Short-eared Owl 



is able to see. Movement through grass or tules without noise is 

 almost an impossibility, even for the tiniest bird or mouse. Hence, it 

 becomes important to locate any creature in the tangle by hearing. 

 Surely a Short-eared Owl could hear the footfall of a beetle at a hundred 

 yards ! 



Short-eared Owls are somewhat hawk-like in their appearance, 

 whether quartering to and fro across the meadows, or watching from a 

 convenient post. There is more flapping of wing than in the case of the 

 Marsh Hawk, but the movement is absolutely noiseless, being hushed by 

 the soft plumage of the axillaries and under wing-coverts. Now and then 

 the bird, tiring of an exclusive swamp diet, goes poaching. Taking up a 

 station upon the ground, it silently awaits the appearance of some timid 

 gopher, which the Burrowing Owl has overlooked. In securing its 

 smaller victims, the Owl does not pounce and tarry, but snatches in mid- 

 flight, falcon-fashion, and retires to some favorite perch to eat. 



Its food consists largely of meadow mice, gophers, and other rodents, 

 supplemented by grasshoppers, crickets and beetles, with now and then a 

 small bird. So great are its sendees to the rancher, and especially to the 

 hay-maker, that the owner may well count it a piece of good fortune when 

 a pair or a colony of them take up quarters in the alfalfa field. Better run 

 the mower carefully around every nest than to suffer the microtus mice 

 to continue their work of devastation. 



These birds are largely resident in winter and migratory in suitable 

 localities throughout the State. While not gregarious, after the fashion 

 of Blackbirds, they are likely to pause during migrations in especially 

 attractive places, irrespective of previous occupants, so that it is no 

 rare sight to see a dozen or a score of them hawking about in a single 

 swamp. Once in some stubble fields near Fresno, Mr. John G. Tyler 

 encountered unusual numbers of certain associated Raptors, and esti- 

 mated that there were not less than two hundred Short-eared Owls in 

 sight at one time, all hunting busily. Some few remain to nest, at least 

 as far south as Fresno; and there are reports, persistent but unconfirmed, 

 of their nesting in Los Angeles County. They are usually seen in pairs 

 at all seasons; and Bendire considers that they are mated for life. House- 

 keeping is of the humblest, home being a mere shake-down of grass some- 

 where upon the ground; and it is only when the nest is threatened that 

 the birds muster "a weak whistling sort of note." 



1089 



