The tawny owl, named also brown owl and wood-owl, is by a little the largest of the four British species. In his colouring, as well as his woodland habits, he comes nearest to the long-eared owl, but he has no ear-tufts like that bird to add to his strangeness, nor is he in appearance so ghostly and grotesque as the white owl. This species alone of the British owls is unknown in Ireland. In England, Wales, and the south of Scotland it is to be met with in all well-wooded districts, and in some localities it is said to be the most common owl. But, unhappily, in many places where it was formerly common it has been extirpated by gamekeepers. Owls are not very social birds, and the tawny owl is the most unsocial of all. He inhabits the deep wood, where he lives solitary or with his mate, and he is said to be very jealous of the intrusion of another individual of his species into his hunting-grounds. His chief distinction is his powerful, clear voice: heard in the profound silence of the woods at eventide the sound is wonderfully impressive, and affects us with a sense of mystery. This may be due to imagination, or to some primitive faculty in us, since the feeling is strong only when we are alone. If we are in a merry company, then the wood-owl’s _too-whit, too-who_, may even seem to us ‘a merry note,’ as Shakespeare described it. The tawny owl sometimes breeds, like the barn-owl, in ruins, outhouses, disused chimneys, and such places; but the usual site is a hollow tree, all the more liked if it is overgrown with ivy. Sometimes he takes possession of a deserted nest of a magpie or crow to breed in. The three or four eggs laid are white, and nearly round in shape. The tawny owl is strictly nocturnal in habits, and preys on mice, rats, moles, young rabbits, squirrels, and birds; and he also, like most owls, occasionally takes fish. * * * * * Besides the species described, no fewer than seven others have been included in books on British birds, and if these seven were not rare accidental visitors to our island we should indeed be rich in owls. It will be sufficient to give their names:-- Snowy owl (_Nyctea scandiaca_). European hawk-owl (_Surnia ulula_). American hawk-owl (_Surnia funeria_). Tengmalm’s owl (_Nyctala tengmalmi_). Scops owl (_Scops giu_). Eagle owl (_Bubo ignavus_). Little owl (_Athene noctua_). It is possible that the last species may one day come to be ranked as a British bird, like the pheasant and red-legged partridge, as several attempts have been made to introduce it into this country, first by Waterton, in 1843; and, in recent years, by Mr. W. H. St. Quintin in Yorkshire, and Mr. Meade-Waldo in Hampshire. Hen Harrier. Circus cyaneus.