Identifier: royalnaturalhist47lyde (find matches)
Title: The royal natural history
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915 Sclater, Philip Lutley, 1829-1913 Frostick, W. B., former owner. DSI Brooks, W. T., former owner. DSI
Subjects: Zoology Natural history
Publisher: London and New York : Frederick Warne & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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birds; these the owl generallydisregards, although at times it makes a sudden swoop on one of its tormentors.At the times when lemmings are migrating, hawk-owls make their ajDpearance ingreat numbers to prey upon the rodent hosts. The nesting-place is usually uponthe broken top of some dead tree; the eggs (five to eight in number) being laideither on the bare rotten wood, or upon a thin layer of dried grass. The female HA WK-0 WLS. i6i commences to sit from the laying of the first egg. Never shy, in the breeding-season this owl is bold in the extreme. When the nest is approached, the birdrapidly raises its head and tail in a series of jerks, after the manner of a cuckoo,and then suddenly dashes at the intruder. Writing of the habits of this species inLapland, Mr. Wolley, in a letter to Prof. Newton, observes that the hawk-owlHies much in the daytime; and, with its long tail, short, sharp wings, and quickflight, has a very hawk-like appearance in the air, when its large square head is
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THE HAWK-OWL (\ IKXt. size). not seen. It carries itself much after the fashion of the more regular owls: ))utwhilst all the feathers at the back give a groat breadth to its full face, there is<piite a table at the top of its head. It cast its bright yellow eyes downwards withthe true air of half-puzzled Misdom, or turns its head round for a leisurely gaze inanother direction : to glance backwards is out of the question, and to look at anyonewith a single eye is much beneath its dignity. The chief food of this owl consist of lennnings, voles, mice, and Ijirds. Thebreeding-season apparently commences in the middle of April and continues vol.. IV. II ,62 OlfLS. till the end of June; and, as the eggs are laid at intervals, some may frequently hefound far on in the latter month. In America the hawk-owl probably breeds onlyin the fur-country and the wooded districts of Alaska. It is there very destructiveto ptarmigan, as it is in the Old World to willow-grouse. In America the numberof e

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