GREAT EAGLE-OWL. 429 



numerous transverse undulating lines; facial disks greyish-hrown, 

 obscurely barred ; throat with a patch of ivhite ; bill and clau's 

 blach toward the end^ greyish-blue at the base. 



Male. — The Great Eagle-Owl is the largest species of this 

 family that occurs in Britain, where however it is very seldom 

 met with, insomuch that I am obliged to have recourse to 

 foreign specimens for description. An individual from Norway 

 presents the following characters. 



The body is robust, although, as usual, the feathers form the 

 greater part of its bulk; the neck short; the head very large, flat- 

 tened above, narrowed anteriorly. The bill is short, very robust, 

 considerably compressed ; the cere rather large, and nearly bare, 

 although concealed by the feathers in the neighbourhood. The 

 upper mandible has the dorsal outline decurved from the base, 

 the ridge broad on the cere, and convex in its whole length, as 

 are the sides toward the end, the edges soft and straight as far 

 as the middle, then sharp, arched, with a faint lobe, the tip 

 very strong, decurved, and acute ; the lower mandible with the 

 back and sides convex, the edges inflected toward the end, with 

 a distinct notch on each side close to the rounded tip. 



The nostrils are large, broadly elliptical, oblique, divided by 

 a soft projecting ridge, their greatest diameter four twelfths of 

 an inch. The eyes extremely large, fixed, and obliquely placed. 

 Conch more than half the height of the skull, elliptical, an inch 

 in length. The tibia is rather short ; the tarsus short, robust, 

 and with the toes feathered. The first toe very short, the se- 

 cond considerably longer than the fourth, and in about the 

 same degree exceeded by the third ; the two latter connected 

 by a short web ; all with three terminal scutella, and their 

 lower surface padded and papillate. The claws are very long, 

 curved in the third of a circle, the first in a semicircle, taper- 

 ing, convex above and on the sides, with a groove beneath, ex- 

 cepting the third which is broader, with a dilated inner edge. 



The plumage is very full, soft, blended, and elastic. The 

 facial disks extend round two thirds of the eye, leaving the up- 

 per part covered with shorter feathers ; those at the base of 

 the cere are linear, with strong shafts and bristly filaments. 



