262 A SPEING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



plumage of the male and female, but the latter 

 is rather the larger ; and in the breeding season I 

 have observed that the breast and belly of the 

 female is strongly tinged with reddish-brown. 

 The male takes his turn at sitting (as is the case 

 with the woodpecker), for I have shot both as 

 they flew out of the hole from the eggs. The 

 hawk owl moults very early, as do many of the 

 northern birds. Like the Siberian jay, the old 

 birds may be seen in deep moult, without tails, 

 even before the young are flyers ; and in both the 

 autumnal moult is complete as soon as the young 

 birds are full feathered. The hawk owl is then m 

 its best plumage, and its clean, pure, shiny dress 

 at that season is very different from the dingy 

 colouring of spring. 



The nest is always in a hole in a rotten pine or 

 fir, sometimes at a considerable height from the 

 ground. Morris says the eggs are white (here he 

 is right) ; but he also says the " nest is built in a 

 tree, and composed of sticks, grass, and feathers ; 

 the eggs, like those of the owls generally, of the 

 dual number." Now I know of no European owl 

 which, as a rule, lays so few as two eggs. The 

 eagle owl, in every instance that I" have seen, lays 

 three ; and though I never myself took the nest 

 of the Lap owl (for although it is shot occasionally 

 there, it does not appear to breed in the Quickiock 



