SHORT-EARED OWL. 
69 
southern continent of America at the Falkland Islands. It is 
likewise spread through every part of Europe, and is common 
in all the forests of Siberia ; it also visits the Orkney Islands 
and Iceland, and we have observed it at Atooi, one of the 
Sandwich Islands, in the Pacific, as well as in the territory of 
Oregon. In England it appears and disappears with the mi- 
grations of the "Woodcock. Its food is almost exclusively mice, 
for which it watches, seated on a stump, with all the vigilance 
of a cat, listening attentively to the low squeak of its prey, 
to which it is so much alive as to be sometimes brought in 
sight by imitating the sound. It is readily attracted by the 
blaze of nocturnal fires, and on such occasions has sometimes 
had the blind temerity to attack men, and come so close to 
combat as to be knocked down with sticks. When wounded 
It also displays the same courageous ferocity, so as to be 
dangerous to approach. In dark and cloudy weather it some- 
times ventures abroad by daylight, takes short flights, and 
when sitting and looking sharply round, it erects the short, ear- 
like tufts of feathers on the head which are at other times 
scarcely visible. Like all other migrating birds, roving indif- 
ferently over the country in quest of food alone, these Owls 
have sometimes been seen in considerable numbers together ; 
Bewick even remarks that 28 of them had been counted at 
once in a turnip-field in England. They are also numerous in 
Holland in the months of September and October, and in all 
countries are serviceable for the destruction they make amon" 
house and field mice, their principal food. Although they 
usually breed in high ground, they have also been observed in 
Europe to nest in marshes, in the middle of the high herbage, 
a situation chosen both for safety and solitude. 
This IS one of the commonest of the New England Owls, and 
suitable marsh land along the coast. It ranges 
north to the fur countries, south to the Gulf States and beyond, 
and west to the Pacific. ^ 
