io8 
British Birds. 
as far as South Africa, and the British 
Museum has received a specimen from the 
Seychelles. The Short-eared Owl is quite 
at home in the daylight, and is often flushed 
by shooting-parties in the autumn from 
the turnip-fields. Its food consists almost 
entirely of mice, but it is also said to prey 
on small birds, reptiles, insects, and even 
fish. The eggs, from six to eight in num- 
ber, are white, and are laid in a depression 
of the ground, there being seldom any 
attempt at a nest. 
The ‘Tawny’ Owl, 
as this species is often 
called, is a stouter bird 
THE 
WOOD-OWL. 
( Syr nium aluco.) 
The Wood-Owl. 
altogether than either 
the Long or Short-eared Owls, but it has 
the same large operculum to the ear : it 
is distinguished, however, at a glance by the complete absence of ear-tufts. It 
has two distinct phases of plumage, a rufous one and a grey, in which the markings 
and mottlings are the same, but the tone of colour is quite different. Many Owls 
and Night-jars have this peculiar double phase of plumage, which appears not to 
be dependent upon age, sex, or season. Nor do I think that locality or altitude 
have anything to do with causing this difference in plumage. Although not found in 
Ireland, the Wood-Owl is distributed over the greater part of England and Scotland, 
and is spread also over the whole of Europe. It is a 
wood-loving species and only comes forth at night, when 
its hooting note is constantly to be heard. It feeds on 
small mammalia, and sometimes catches young game- 
birds as well as rabbits. The eggs are three or four in 
number, white, rather glossy and about one-and -three- 
quarter inches in length. They are laid in a hole of a 
tree, or building, but have also been found in a rabbit- 
burrow or in the old nest of a Crow or Sparrow-hawk. 
This is a small species, about 
nine-and-a-half inches in length, 
similar in many respects to the 
Wood-Owls, but having the ear- 
conches on each side of the skull asymmetrical, the 
right one being placed higher than the left, as if to 
, , , , . , Tengmalm’s Owl. 
enable the bird to near towards the sky with one ear, 
TENGMALM’S 
OWL. 
(Nyctala tengmalmi.) 
