Birds. 



8443 



off a very fair-sized handful of his hair. I was standing below, and knocked the old 

 bird over with his claws full of hair. Had I not been at the bottom of the tree with 

 my gun, the lad might easily have been beateu off his hazardous perch. There is no 

 trouble in shooting the hawk owl if you have only a close-ranging dog in the forest ; 

 for, whatever time of year it may be, as soon as ever the bird spies a dog below him, he 

 always descends to give battle. In flight, manners and appearance, the hawk owl is 

 closely allied to the hawks. It is strictly diurnal in its habits, and to the stealthy quiet 

 flight of the owl adds the spirit and courage of the falcon. No forest bird is safe 

 from the attacks of these owls. I have seen them strike down the Siberian jay, their 

 closest neighbour, on the wing ; and more than once have I disturbed them feeding on 

 the old willow-grouse, a bird half as large again as themselves. Their principal food 

 appears to be birds, lemming and wood mice, but I have often taken insects out of 

 their stomachs. There is little difference in the 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, 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 in its best plumage, and its clean, pure, shining 

 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 considerable height from the 

 ground. On June 30th I took a clutch of the hawk owl with eight eggs— probably a 

 second clutch from a bird whose first nest had been robbed, for we seldom found 

 fresh eggs after the second week in May, and early in June we shot young flyers. I 

 also took, on May 30th, a clutch of Tengmalm's owl, with ten eggs. But these cer- 

 tainly were exceptional cases. As to the nest, I never saw a nest of either, the eggs 

 having been always laid, like those of the woodpecker, in a hole with nothing under 

 them but a few dry splinters and chips of the rotten or fresh wood, as the case might 

 be. The eggs of the hawk owl very often so much resemble those of the short-eared 

 owl that one might well pass for the other; but they are in general a little smaller, 

 rather more elongated and pointed at the small end, and of a deep dirty white. Usual 

 size: H inch by 1|. Tengmalm's owl was, next to the last, the commonest owl in our 

 forests, but, being much more nocturnal in its habits than the hawk owl, it was not so 

 often seen ; not that the light appears much to affect its vision, for here the summer 

 nights are as light as day, and we rarely went into the forest on any night without 

 seeing this pretty little owl hawking after its prey. The eggs of this owl vary much in 

 shape, but not so much in size. In the same nest you will see some eggs as round as 

 musket-balls, others oval and elongated. The usual size, however, is about Jf by 1 inch. 

 This owl has a much more southern range than the last, for we not uufrequently take 

 nests in S. Wermland ; but, strange to say, they are met with, like those of the cross- 

 bills, only about every third year. This owl goes to nest early ; after the end of May 

 you rarely find eggs. It has been remarked that wheuever this owl has appeared in 

 autumn, in the very south of Sweden, a severe winter has always followed. We found 

 it to occupy in the Quickiock forest precisely the same range as the hawk owl, and we 

 never, by any chance, saw one on the fell-sides higher than the fir region* It is a 

 bold, voracious little bird. One light night I shot a female in full chase after lemming 

 on a frozen lake. In Wermland, on one occasion, having caught an old female on 



