56 
STRIGID7E. 
and invariably found in or around the nest, feathers 
and other remains of the winged race; in one case a 
freshly-killed chaffinch, in another the wing of a snipe, 
and several smaller birds, and in a pellet the indigestible 
pad of a young hare or rabbit. 
“ A nest which I examined this day, April 11th, con¬ 
tained three eggs, which were laid on what appeared 
to have been the drey of the squirrel in a tall spruce-fir; 
this nest was lined with a few feathers, and only disco¬ 
vered on the 31st of March, and had then the same 
number of eggs. I hope to ascertain, when the young 
ones are hatched, whether, as is I believe generally the 
case with this tribe, the parent bird had commenced in¬ 
cubation when the first egg was laid.” 
Mr. Tuke thinks that in some of the nests mentioned 
there could not be less than eight or ten days’ difference 
in the age of the young ones, so that some days must 
intervene between the production of each egg, the female 
beginning to sit as soon as the first eggs are laid,—a pro¬ 
vision which would enable the old birds the more readily 
to supply the demands of their voracious progeny. 
Mr. Alfred Newton, writing from Elveden Hall, in 
Norfolk, says,—“ The Long-eared is the most plentiful 
species of owl hereabout, and there are few plantations 
of any size which do not contain a pair, as far as my 
own experience goes, though it is opposed to Messrs. 
Tuke’s opinion, quoted in your former edition. I should 
say that the usual number of eggs laid by this owl is 
four; this year the gamekeeper has found a nest with 
five eggs, and my brother has seen six young ones in the 
same nest. The Long-eared Owl usually adapts a squir¬ 
rel’s nest, called hereabouts a drail, to its own purposes. 
It appears to feed much on small birds. I have found 
wheat-ears, willow-wrens, and chaffinches, or at least their 
