BYGONE BIRDING: SCOPS OWL WAS SUSPENDED ON SPINY TWIG BY ITS EYELIDS

Collared scops owl

                                          

A few days ago whilst birds-nesting in a ravine near Dehra Dun (at the foothills of the Himalays in northern India), I disturbed a Scops Owl.

It was sitting in a small tree over which the prickly climber, Caesalpinia scpiaria, was spreading. 

In its flight, the owl accidentally collided with one of the dry, curved, leafless branchlets of the creeper which is armed with short curved spines, mostly in pairs. 

To my surprise, the owl remained fluttering and suspended from the spiny twig from which I had considerable trouble in extricating it. 

It had been caught by the eyelids by at least two thorns both above and below the eye - and so securely that I think it improbable that it would have managed to effect its escape unaided. 

The bird proved to be the Collared Scops Owl.

I kept it a few days in captivity, feeding it on cockroaches, and then

allowed it to escape.

B. B. Osmaston

Dehra Dun

August, 1916

* Photo: Jack Walf via Wikimedia Commons