3IO EAGLE-OWL. 



Museum, Dublin, there is an example of the South African Bubo 

 macitlosus, said to have been brought in the flesh to the late Dr. 

 Birkett of Waterford on January 27th 1851 (probably an imported 

 bird), and at one time this specimen was erroneously identified as 

 the American B. virginianiis. 



The Eagle-Owl inhabits the forest-covered, rugged and mountain- 

 ous districts of Europe, from Scandinavia, Lapland and Northern 

 Russia to the Mediterranean ; as well as Africa north of the Atlas 

 Mountains. Specimens from beyond the A^olga are pale in colour, 

 while east of the Ural Mountains and across Siberia to the Sea of 

 Okhotsk a still paler form, B. sibiricus, occurs ; but birds from 

 China to the Sea of Japan seem to be identical with those from 

 Europe. In Central Asia, through the Himalayas to Tibet, its 

 representative is the rather smaller B. turcomanus ; while B. blakis- 

 toui is the species found in Japan ; and B. ascalaphus (with shorter 

 ear-tufts) inhabits Syria, Egypt and North-east Africa. America is 

 occupied by B. virgiinamis and its sub-divisions. 



In the forest-regions the Eagle-Owl deposits its eggs in some 

 wide fork or other convenient place in a large tree, or makes use of 

 an old nest of another bird ; but in the mountains it selects ruins, 

 slightly overhung ledges, or the roots of trees on crags, and the 

 sides of narrow gorges, while it is not averse to the proximity of a 

 cottage ; and in the steppes it lays its eggs on the open ground. 

 Incubation often commences early in April ; the 2-3 nearly round 

 eggs being creamy-white : measurements 2 -3 by i "9 in. No nest is 

 originally made, but the young are often found upon an accumula- 

 tion of castings, mingled with fur from rats, rabbits, hares, &c., 

 which, with birds, form the food of this predatory species. In 

 Spain and the Pyrenees the peasants make a practice of robbing the 

 nest of the game supplied daily to the young by the parent birds, 

 and substituting any available offal ; for which reason the position is 

 seldom revealed to strangers until the young are nearly ready to fly. 

 The Eagle-Owl seeks its prey by day as well as by night ; its cry, 

 chiefly uttered early in the spring, is a loud boo, boo. In confinement 

 this species breeds freely and has been known to live to a great age. 



The general colour of the upper parts is dark brown or black, 

 mottled with tawny-yellow ; wings and tail transversely barred ; 

 under parts yellowish-brown with dark streaks and bars ; head with 

 long ear-tufts ; operculum absent ; legs thickly feathered to the toes ; 

 irides bright orange. Length : male 24 in., wing 18 in. ; female 

 25 in., wing 18-5 in. Northern examples are larger than those from 

 the south. 



