BIRDS 173 



adds a note of a bird killed in Barrowfield Wood, Kendal, in 

 1875, and that Mr. H. Arnold saw eight (and shot two) in 

 Ulpha Wood. Bell of Milnthorpe considers it rather scarce in 

 South Westmorland, but Mr. Hutchinson has preserved several 

 specimens killed near Kendal, and kept two examples in cap- 

 tivity. Durnford recorded the species as plentiful near Barrow 

 in 1876. For the rest, this Owl occurs sporadically in our 

 larger plantations up to the very borders of Scotland ; as well 

 in Renwick and other fell districts, as in the large woods of the 

 lower grounds. It suffers more from pole- traps than any other 

 species of Owl. 



SHORT-EARED OWL. 



Asio accipitrinus (Pall.). 

 Dr. Heysham knew this Owl as a winter visitor to Lakeland, 

 and as such it has occurred with some irregularity in most parts 

 of our area. Captain Johnson told me that at one time he 

 often flushed flights of these Owls in the turnip fields near 

 Brampton. That this species visited Walney Island abundantly 

 fifteen or sixteen years ago is evident from the experience of 

 Mr. W. A. Durnford, who had seen as many as six birds 

 together, beating the ground for mice between three and four 

 in the afternoon. He adds that the species visited Walney in 

 larger numbers than usual in 1876, the first flight arriving with 

 the Woodcocks on October 28, but that in 1877 this Owl was 

 as scarce in Walney as it had been abundant the previous 

 winter. For my own part I have not met with this Owl in Lake- 

 land except in very limited numbers ; a good many appeared on 

 Walney in the autumn and early winter of 1891. An odd pair 

 of these Owls occasionally remains to breed in Lakeland. Pro- 

 bably the first known instance is that recorded without date by 

 Mr. Hancock, who simply says that the late Mr. R. R. Wingate 

 picked up a young individual of the Short-eared Owl near 

 Brampton, Cumberland. Mr. Henry Kerr of Bacup writes in 

 the Field of November 29, 1879: 'When on the northern border 

 of Cumberland, in August last, I was told by an ex-gamekeeper 

 that he had shot old and young birds of this species on the 

 Bewcastle fells in Cumberland. My informant, who is a good 



