2S8 
SHORT-EARED OWL. 
of our regular winter visitants in the north. Octo- 
ber 13th is the earliest date of its occurrence to 
me ; and I have several times shot this Owl in the 
neighbourhood of Belfast, invariably in w T et and 
boggy places, where snipes might be expected.”* 
The geographical range is extensive, as we have 
already noted ; and, next to Europe, it seems most 
abundant on the American continent. In the 
United States it is a winter visitant, appearing in 
November and departing in April, t most probably 
to some wilder district to breed; for it is a summer 
visitant, again, in the fur countries, arriving as 
soon as the snow disappears, and departing in 
September. It is found as far north as lat. 67°. 
Its principal haunts are dense thickets of young 
pine trees, and dark and entangled willow clumps, 
where it sits in a low branch wmtehing assiduously 
for mice. Its nest, formed of withered grass and 
moss, is placed on a dry spot of ground; and, 
according to Mr Hutchins, it lays ten or twelve 
small round white eggs. J 
In the markings of this species we have the 
same prevalence of tawmy and black, or deep 
umber brown, which we have seen in most of the 
preceding birds, but it is without that blended 
very undecided and wavy character which w'e 
* Mag. of Zool. and Bot. ii. p. 177. 
+ Wilson. J Northern Zoology, ii. p. 75. 
