264 
TAWNY OWL. 
highest trees. It is not so shyas theLong-earedOwl, 
allowing a very close approach when discovered in 
its dormitory ; when roused, flying onward only for 
a short distance in a low lazy flight, and in an ex- 
tensive wood it will continue long to flit on before, 
apparently unwilling to rise, until urged by the too 
near approach of the intruder. It appears even 
more sensitive to the light than the White Owl, 
and Montague remarks, “ and so defective is its 
sight in a bright day, that it is no uncommon thing 
for boys to hunt them down with sticks and 
stones.”* During the flight in the day, and when 
disturbed, it moves in silence, but at night it is 
this bird which principally utters the peculiarly 
modulated and toned “ lxootings,” which are con- 
verted into forebodings of evil ; this hooting is the 
more peculiar call of the genus ( ulula ;) and from 
its melancholy and sometimes startling noise, has 
led the superstition in all countries where they are 
natives. The Barred Owl of America, for instance, 
seems equally noted with its European congener 
for this peculiar call. 
The Tawny Owl, as noted above, seeks its 
breeding place in hollow trees, or the deserted 
nests of the carrion-crow or magpie, sometimes in 
the holes of rocks, t and Montague says sometimes 
in bams. Little preparation for depositing the 
Dictionary. 
+ Hewitson. 
