Some Exotic Owls 



their doors alone of all the family's can be laid 

 the charge of doing more harm than good. And 

 it is doubtful whether this can be sustained in all 

 cases, as they probably destroy much vermin as 

 well as game. Our best Indian field-ornithologist, 

 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker, once told me that he had 

 started a Nepal eagle-owl (Bubo nepalensis) off 

 the carcase of a tree-civet, which the bird had 

 killed, circumstantial evidence beino- at hand in 

 the shape of deep talon-marks in the victim's 

 neck. These tree-civets are vermin of the worst 

 kind, and better climbers even than cats, so that 

 in this case, at all events, the owl was doing 

 something to pay for his keep. 



The milky eagle-owl'? companion is a bird of 

 quite another stamp. Pel's fish-owl has about 

 him something of comic disreputability. His 

 countenance is not dignified. His plumage of 

 cinnamon, barred with black, has an undeniably 

 " loud " effect among the sober habiliments 

 common in the owl tribe, and his naked feet 

 somehow look rather outrt in an owl, although 

 it is easy to see that a fishing owl is better off 

 without stockings. In manner he is vulgar and 

 forward, and the contrast between him and his 

 companion, when they were first introduced to 

 each other, was delightful to notice. The Bishop 

 — as I feel tempted to call the big African owl — 

 had lived in the den for a long time, but she did 



13' 



