Short-eared Owl.
Strix brachyotos, Gmel. edit. Lina. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 289.
'¡Mr-— cegolius, 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., pi. 51.
Otus brachyotus, Steph. Cent, of Shaw’s Gen. Zoo'l., vol. xiii.-pt. 2. p. 57.
Brachyotus palustris, Gould, Birds of Europe, vol. i. pi. 40.
_________________europceus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., tom. i. p. 51.—Brachyotus, sp. 1.
T h e b e are in nearly every group of birds certain species which are eminently cosmopolitan—wanderers, as
it were, over the whole (o r nearly the whole) surface o f 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. I t is true th at the ornithologists of the United States consider their bird to be distinct from
the Short-eared Owl. of the Old W o rld ; 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 o f 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 th at this bird inhabits the African continent, from north to south. Mr. Jerdon states that it
arrives in India a t the beginning o f 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 o f the European continent enumerates it in the list of its avifauna.
I t is common on the Amur, and doubtless in every p art of China. In America, it frequents the fur-
countries in summer, and a t other seasons the whole of the northern States, from east to west. When
speaking o f this species in my ‘ B irds o f Europe,’ I stated that I had seen examples from other portions of
the New World, even as far as the southernmost parts o f Ch ili; 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 o f any o f the
Indian Islands, such as Borneo, Java, the Philippines, and J a p an ; everywhere else this flapping diurnal
Owl appears to be either a constant resident or a migrant.
In England, this bird is known to sportsmen as the Woodcock Owl. from the circumstance o f its numbers
being greatly augmented about the time of the arrival o f that bird in November; in all probability, both
species are under the same influence, and compulsorily leave the coast o f Norway with the first favourable
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,
in the latter p art o f the Partridge-season, among the great turnip-fields and low sedgy flats of Norfolk,
Suffolk, and Cambridge and Huntingdon shires. Certain districts are occasionally overrun with the common
Field-Mouse to such an extent that the young plantations would be entirely destroyed, were their numbers
not kept down by the Short-eared Owl. Instances are on record of from ten to twenty being seen together;
and hence it has been regarded by some as a gregarious bird, which indeed it is, so long as there is an abundance
o f this kind o f food, but no longer: the mice failing, it feeds upon any other small quadrupeds and
birds it may be able to obtain. Colonel Montagu found the remains of a Skylark and a Yellowhammer in
the stomach o f one he examined, Mr. Thompson the legs of a Tringa, and Mr. Yarrell a half-grown rat
and portions o f a bat.
These terrestrial habits will inform my readers that this is not a woodland bird, like the Long-eared Owl;
and this difference in the situations they frequent, together with certain variations in their structure, induces
me to consider them as generically distinct.
Sir William Jardine states, “ On the extensive moors a t the Head of Dryfe, a small rivulet in Dumfriesshire,
I have, for many years past, met with one or two pairs o f these b ird s ; and the accidental discovery
of their young first turned my attention to the range o f their breeding. The young was discovered