NOTES AND QUERIES. 233 



It perched some few yards from the nest, laid its egg on the ground, 

 and carried it in its bill to the Titlark's nest, and placed it therein. 

 One of the three eggs in the nest he saw in its bill after it had left the 

 nest, and this it left on the ground quite near ; and when he went up 

 to look at the nest after the bird had flown away he found the Titlark's 

 egg broken in two, and the contents on the ground. The Cuckoo's 

 egg, which is now in my collection, differs considerably in colour from 

 those of its foster-parents. It is a good bit larger than the other eggs, 

 but yet after all would hardly attract the notice of the real owner of 

 the nest either from its size or colour. I have every confidence in the 

 man who gave me the above information. He is a most reliable 

 observer. — William W. Flemyng (Coalfin, Portlaw, Co. Waterford). 



The Sounds produced by the Long-eared Owl (Asio otus). — I fully 

 agree with Mr. W. Gyngell, in his note under the above heading 

 (ante, p. 183), that the Long-eared Owl is not so silent a bird as it is 

 often alleged to be. Mr. Gyngell describes very accurately three sounds 

 which it produces, and which are familiar to me ; but my object in 

 writing is to draw attention to what I consider the most characteristic 

 sound of all — the nuptial note or "song" of the male — which, rather 

 strangely, Mr. Gyngell does not seem to have heard. It is the more 

 necessary to draw attention to this cry, as it is one which may very 

 easily be confounded on paper, though quite unlike to the ear, with 

 " Sound No. 1" of Mr. Gyngell's communication, which, I am confident, 

 is, as he conjectures, produced by the female. The "song-note" is 

 chiefly heard very early in the year — -in Co. Wexford I am accustomed 

 to hear it from the opening days of January to the beginning of April, 

 but most persistently during February. It might be called a hoot, but 

 does not, of course, bear the very faintest resemblance to the hoot of 

 the English Tawny Owl. It is possibly the cry which Swaysland 

 renders as "hoo-ok," though that description may rather refer — as 

 Mr. Gyngell assumes that it does — to the more moaning note of the 

 female — Mr. Gyngell's " oo-woo." Mr. Kobert Warren has also de- 

 scribed a " long drawn oo, oo, oo," which is spoken of in the ' Birds of 

 Ireland' (p. 116) as the seasonal call of the male, but of which the 

 description appears to me even more applicable to the note of the 

 female. In fact, it seems scarcely possible to tell from a description 

 which note is intended unless both are described. I will now endeavour 

 to set down what seem to me the readiest distinctions between these 

 two cries : — (1) The male note has an abrupt ending (I should syllable 

 it as "oop"). The female note dies off softly like a heavy sigh 

 (" shoo-oogh"). (2) The " oop" is uttered at short regular intervals 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. IX., June, 1905. t 



