Identifier: birdsofbritishis00cowa ( find matches)
Title: The birds of the British Isles and their eggs
Year: 1919 ( 1910s)
Authors: Coward, T. A. (Thomas Alfred), 1867-1933
Subjects: Birds -- Great Britain Birds -- Eggs Great Britain
Publisher: London New York : F. Warne
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
I PL 120. Long-eared Owl.Short-eared Owl. U 294.
Text Appearing After Image:
^mf^-^:^ ;.-^;#fc?^f1^^^^--^is^. I yv. 121. ^vS Long-eared Owl nesting on ground. Cr29S. SHORT-EARED OWL. 295 have seen it, a mere speck in the sky, gradually float down,UP moved by the angry mobbing of a Rook and Daw, andwhen near the earth suddenly shoot with half-closed wings andskim out of sight just above the hedgerows. It is in theseskimming descents, no doubt, that it is captured in the flightnets on the coast. The food—small mammals, birds and beetles—does notdifter from that of other owls, but it is evidently partial tovoles, for during the over-abundance of these destructiverodents, known as vole-plagues, there is always a greatincrease of Short-eared Owls, natures most effective methodof reducing their numbers. On migration it feeds upon otheravian travellers, capturing them as they fly on misty nights inthe glare from the lighthouses. The nest, always on the ground, may have a little lining, butthis is usually the trodden vegetation ; it is amongst the heatheron the mo

Note About Images