SHORT-EARED OWL. 
Strix brachyotos, Lath. 
Otus Brachyotos, Cwv. 
La Hibou brachyote. 
Tue Short-eared Owl is so universally dispersed as to render it probable that it may be observed over the 
whole of the four continents, with the exception of the-high northern regions. We have ourselves been 
enabled to compare specimens of this species from the Straits of Magellan, Brazil, and North America, with 
others from every part of Africa and India, all of which were so strictly similar in their markings and size 
that it was impossible to distinguish them. : 
Unlike the rest of its tribe, which habitually reside among trees and rocks, the Short-eared Owl reposes on 
the ground, and prefers extensive moors and marshes to thickly wooded districts. Although it is sparingly 
dispersed during summer over the northern parts of England and Scotland, in which localities it is known to 
breed, still it must be regarded as a migratory bird both in the British Islands and the greater portion of the 
Continent. In Holland it is particularly abundant during the months of September and October, about which 
period it makes its annual migration to England, where it arrives in companies of from five to twenty or 
thirty in number, and gradually disperses over the marshes and extensive fields of turnips which border the 
whole of our eastern coast. Its flight is strong and vigorous, and from its diurnal habits it may be frequently 
observed, particularly in gloomy weather, on the wing at midday, hunting for small birds, mice, frogs, &c., 
which constitute its principal food. 
When in a state of repose, it secretes itself on the ground, either in a tuft of long grass, heath, or among 
the thickest part of the turnips, and it is seldom roused from this retreat until closely approached. It is 
to be regretted that these secluded and retiring habits tend much to its own destruction by the facility 
with which it is discovered by the gunner with the assistance of his pointer, which will generally point on 
scenting it. 
In a note in his valuable edition of Wilson’s American Ornithology, Sir William Jardine informs us that he 
has found the nest of this bird on the extensive moors at the head of Dryfe (a small rivulet in Dumfriesshire), 
that the eggs are five in number, and that the “nest is formed upon the ground among the heath, the bottom 
of the nest scraped until the fresh earth appears, on which the eggs are placed, without any lining or other 
accessory covering. When approaching the nest or young, the old birds fly and hover round, uttering a 
small shrill cry, and snappiug with their bills. The young are barely able to fly by the 12th of August, and 
appear to leave the nest some time before they are able to rise from the ground. I have taken them, on that 
great day to sportsmen, squatted on the heath like young black game, at no great distance from each other, 
and always attended by the parent birds.” 
Feathers covering the nostrils brownish white, with black shafts; circle immediately around the eyes 
blackish brown ; remainder of the facial disk yellowish brown, mottled with blackish brown; circle of small 
feathers behind the facial disk mottled with tawny white, blackish brown, and white, except opposite to the 
orifice of the ear, where they are wholly blackish brown; on each side of the forehead four or five feathers 
somewhat longer than the rest, which are erected and depressed at pleasure; head, back, and wing-coverts 
dark brown, deeply edged with tawny brown; quills pale reddish brown, with several broad bars of dark 
brown on their outer webs; the inner webs are also barred, but not so numerously or so regularly as the 
outer; the tips of all ending in ashy grey; fore part of the neck and breast buff orange, each feather 
streaked down the centre with dark brown; under surface pale yellowish brown, with dark brown shafts ; 
tarsi and toes dull yellowish white free from spots, the feathers assuming a hairy appearance on the toes ; 
claws blackish grey ; bill blueish black ; irides gamboge yellow. 
The Plate represents an adult male of the natural size. 
