280 



THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 



[March 1895. 



The Short-Eared Owl is from 14 to 15 inches in height. The 

 female is rather larger than the male. The head, back, and 

 wings are lightish brown with darker brown patclies upon them. 

 The wing feathers have an edging of light buff or fawn colour, 

 and the under surface of the body is of this colour with blackish 

 markings upon the breast. The legs are pale buff coloured with 

 black toes. The beak is also black, and the ears, as well as the 

 tufts of feathers on the head, are brown. The eggs are creamy 

 white in colour, and about If inches long by IJ inches in breadth. 

 They are deposited on the ground in a nest scooped out of the 

 earth and lined with a little dry grass or moss. The nest is 

 made generally in tufts of heather or furze, or in grassy spots. 

 Sometimes it is found in marshy and fenny spots in reeds and 

 rushei'. Nests have been occasionally found in the Kentish 

 marshes on little hillocks covered with rushes. From four to seven 

 eggs are generally laid, but, as was shown by evidence before the 

 Commitee cited above, as many as 13 eggs have been found in a 

 nest. Seebohm, in his " Far Countries of North America," quotes 

 Richardson to the effect that this species of owl lays as many as 

 10 to 12 eggs. The Short-Eared Owl is much appreciated in 

 Germany, where it is called the " moor," " fen," and " meadow " 

 owl. It occasionally breeds in Germany as in England, but 

 generally arrives in September and remains till March. In 

 France it breeds in the Pj^renees, Charente Inferieure, Herault, 

 Tarn, Aude, and other Southern Departments, but not very 

 extensively. 



