THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 
89 
of Norfolk. But as to its breeding in Ireland, — which from the 
nature of the country, we should certainly expect, — no informa- 
tion can be given. Sportsmen and gamekeepers, whom I have 
questioned on the subject, know the bird only as a winter visitant. 
One friend, who for about forty years shot over the mountains of 
several of our northern counties, and in no instance was a day 
after the legal one (20th of August in Ireland) in commencing 
grouse-shooting, — always, too, having exercised his dogs prepara- 
tory to the sport, for some time previously, — never met with it at 
that season ; nor at any other than when woodcocks are to be 
found. The short-eared owl is then well known to him as fre- 
quenting the mountain heaths. He has never observed it on 
wing, except when sprung, nor seen it pursue prey by day. It 
has, however, been observed to do so in Scotland.* 
To the neighbourhood of Belfast, — Down and Antrim, — this 
owl generally comes in the month of October ; but so early as 
the 5th of September, 1839, one was shot in a potato field bor- 
dering the bay, within a mile of the town. It remains from this 
time until spring. The latest noted here was killed on the 3rd of 
April, 1837 ; for a long time before that period, there was a pre- 
valence of north-easterly winds, which, had the bird been disposed 
for migration, might have retarded its movements. The species 
is generally found in marshy ground frequented by snipes. When 
snipe-shooting around Belfast, a few of these owls have fallen to 
my gun, in boggy spots of very limited extent. The first of them 
that did so, being only winged, afforded me an opportunity of 
observing the exceeding “depth” and brilliancy of its large 
golden eyes, to utterly extinguish the light of which, — such is the 
effect of beauty, — it must be confessed, pained me much. To the 
counties of Londonderry and Donegal this owl resorts, in the 
latter of which it was not observed by Mr. J. Y. Stewart until 
after the publication of his catalogue. Southward, it is met with 
of Hesleyside, has frequently found their eggs among the heath in his own neigh- 
bourhood. Mr. It. R. Wingate has also met with the young ones on the same moors 
before they were able to fly.” — Hewitson, Eggs Brit. Birds, p. 36. 
* See St. John’s Sketches of the Wild Sports of the Highlands, p. 64. 
