LONG-EARED OWL. 
57 
remains, in its nest as often as not. I think it delays the 
act of incubation until its clutch of eggs is completed.” 
Wilson says, “ About six or seven miles below Phila¬ 
delphia, and not far from the Delaware, is a low swamp 
thickly covered with trees, and inundated great part of 
the year. This place is the resort of great numbers of 
the qua-bird, or night-raven (Ardea Nycticorax), where 
they build in large companies. On the 25th of April, 
while wading among the dark recesses of this place ob¬ 
serving the habits of these birds, I discovered a Long¬ 
eared Owl which had taken possession of one of their 
nests, and was sitting. On mounting to the nest I found 
it contained four eggs, and breaking one of these the 
young appeared almost ready to leave the shell. There 
were numbers of the qua-birds 1 nests on the adjoining 
trees all around, and one of them actually on the same 
tree.” 
