BRACHYOTUS PALUSTRIS

Short-eared Owl.

Strix brachyotus,”Gmel. edit. Linn, Syst. Nat., tom. i, p. 289,
egolius, Pall. Zoog. Ross. As., tom. i. p. 309.

—— ulula, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 294.

—— accipitrina, Pall. Itin., vol. i. p. 445.

—— caspia, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. vii. p: 272.

palustris, Bechst. Vog. Deutsch., tom. ii. p. 344,

brachyura, Nils. Faun. Suec., tom. i. p- 62.

arctica, Sparm. Mus. Carls., le ole

Otus brachyotus, Steph. Cent. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xiii. Dee
Brachyotus palustris, Gould, Birds of Europe, vol. i. pl. 40.

 

 

 

 

Daou

 

europeus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., tom. i. p. 51.—Brachyotus, sp. 1.

 

Tuere are in nearly every group of birds certain species which are eminently cosmopolitan—wanderers, as
it were, over the whole (or nearly the whole) surface of our globe; and the present bird may be regarded
as the cosmopolite among the Owls, since it ranges so widely that there are few countries which it does
not inhabit. It is true that the ornithologists of the United States consider their bird to be distinct from
the Short-eared Owl of the Old World; but the difference between them is, In my opinion, too slight to
warrant their being regarded in that light.

Wherever a bird breeds, that country may justly claim it as one of its indigenous inhabitants: hence
this Owl may be so considered in the British Islands; for although there is an immigration from the
north about the end of October, and a corresponding diminution in spring, yet considerable numbers did
formerly, and many now, remain to breed in England, ‘Scotland, and Ireland. We have abundant
evidence that this bird inhabits the African continent, from north to south. Mr. Jerdon states that it
arrives in India at the beginning of the cold weather, and leaves again about March, spreading itself in the
interval over the entire Peninsula, from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas, and being often flushed and killed
by the florican-hunters. Every country of the European continent enumerates it in the list of its avifauna.
It is common on the Amur, and doubtless in every part of China. In America, it frequents the fur-
countries in summer, and at other seasons the whole of the northern States, from east to west. When
speaking of this species in my ‘ Birds of Europe,’ I stated that I had seen examples from other portions of
the New World, even as far as the southernmost parts of Chili; and although I cannot now refer to the
specimens, I am inclined to believe that I was correct in so saying. In Australia, New Zealand, and
Polynesia it has never been found ; neither have I any reason to suppose that it is a native of any of the
Indian Islands, such as Borneo, Java, the Philippines, and Japan; everywhere else this flapping diurnal
Owl appears to be either a constant resident or a migrant. 7 -

In England, this bird is known to sportsmen as the Cocco Oe the ee a a
being greatly augmented about the time of the arrival of that bird in November; in all probability, both

: : é : es save the coast of Norway with the first favourable
species are under the same influence, and compulsorily leave the coast of ! ay

wind. In November, then, great accessions to the numbers of this bird are observed to take place on our

eastern shores, whence they spread themselves over the entire country, and are frequently to be met with,
‘

i ‘ r the eres “‘nip-fields and low sedgy flats of Norfolk
in the latter part of the Partridge-season, among the great turnip-fields ; sninrts ;
S S livia etal istricts are ACh siona y overrun with the common
Suffolk, and Cambridge and Huntingdon shires. Certain districts are occa | 1 | : |
, 2 ati 5 W 2a G ir ‘ly destroyet were their numbers
Field-Mouse to such an extent that the young plantations would be ent ely ‘ | ae
, ances ar ‘ecord of from ten to twenty being seen together ;
not kept down by the Short-eared Owl. Instances are on record fe oe | ) Se
: ~ 4 opeoarious bird, which indeed it 1s, so long as there Is an ¢ ~
and hence it has been regarded by some as a gregarious bird, whic , ; : g ea ae
, ice failing, it feeds upon any other sma é ds ¢
dance of this kind of food, but no longer: the mice failing, it feeds upon’an} q e
i 1M oy found the remains of a Skylark and a \¥ ellowhammer in
birds it may be able to obtain. Colonel Montagu Tess ancit Vin» Yeorretle alivetennaaet at
the stomach of one he examined, Mr. ‘Thompson the legs of a Tringa, and Mr. Yarrell ¢ 2

and portions of a bat.

These terrestrial habits will inform my reader
and this difference in the situations they frequent, ¢
me to consider them as generically distinct. ;

Sir William Jardine states, ‘On the extensive moors
shire, I have, for many years past, met with one or two pairs a eee
of their young first turned my attention to the range of thei g

s that this is not a woodland bird, like the Long-eared Owl;
o c a X

ovether with certain variations in their structure, induces
5

at the Head of Dryfe, a small rivulet in Dumfries-
; z .

f these birds; and the accidental discovery
The young was discovered