AN OWL'S NEST.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Six,—On several successive nights during the past month, between the hours of nine and eleven, I heard in the garden in front of our• house what I believed to be the note of an owl. Watching from the window, I more than once caught sight of one, and the persistent presence of the bird led me to suppose, unlikely as it seemed, that there might be a nest in the neighbourhood. This suspicion grew at last so strong that I had a ladder procured, and a fine old elm in the garden was climbed, when in a hole about eighteen inches deep in the fork of the trunk was discovered a nest of a tawny owl con- taining two eggs. The mother bird, a fine large specimen, scared by the climbing, flew away a short distance, but soon returned. We have, therefore, every prospect of obtaining before long a brood of these birds. The garden fronts a busy road which lies between our house and Wandsworth Common ; and the fact that these fine and shy creatures should have nested there, unalarmed by constant foot, omnibus, earl, and motor traffic, and the trains of the London and Brighton Railway which r•un through the common less than a hundred yards away, seems to me of sufficient interest to warrant mention in your columns. Starlings had built before in the same spot, and had left a quantity of nest material which the owls have used. This also is, I think, unusual.—I am, Sir, &c.,
G. M. W.
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