Birds of Gazaland. 421 



conceived a great aversion), it promptly assumes its most 

 truculent manner. It will often take food from the hand, 

 generally, however, after a slightly hostile demonstration. 

 It will fiuish a Guinea-fowl ia two nights and has on one 

 occasion eaten practically the whole of a wild Duck 

 (skinned) in one. It calls constantly at night — two notes, 

 the first invariably double, the second long-drawn — " Hoo-oo 

 hoooo ! " — a pleasing cry. A male measured 18 inches in 

 the flesh and its stomach contained two shrews. The feet 

 in all my specimens have been dull or light grey. 



216. Bubo lacteus. Verreaux's Eagle-Owl. 



Singuni : " Isikova esikulu '^ or '^ Umvus' inkunzi " 

 (wake-the-bull). Chindao : '^ Ikwikwi '^ or '' Izizi.^' 



Rh.j P. During the first half of August one of these 

 fine Owls visited the neighbourhood of my camp on the 

 Kurumadzi for some days. It frequented some large 

 Pterocarpus trees scattered through the grass-jungle and kept 

 up its hollow sepulchral hoot all day and all night. Like 

 my tame specimen of Bubo maculosus it was very wakeful, 

 even in the daytime, and very unapproachable, at once 

 making off with a soft flapping flight if approached to within 

 eighty yards, and perching on one of the larger bare 

 horizontal branches of some tree further on. The hoot at a 

 distance is somewhat like the call of a leopard, but more 

 broken and jerky — a deep hoarse repeated grunt, which, 

 especially at close quarters, cannot be mistaken. My 

 natives, of whom I had a large gang sleeping under an open 

 shelter, were extremely nervous, believing that the presence 

 of the Owl foreboded disaster, and kept up large fires all 

 night. Actually there were two lions about at the time and 

 a young native was taken from a neighbouring village. On 

 September 8th I was ascending the wooded slope of Umtereni, 

 near the Upper Buzi, when an individual of this species flew 

 over with what appeared to be a black Kafir fowl in its 

 claws. This was at noon on a very hot day. It had hardly 

 settled in a dense-foliaged tree lower down the glen when a 

 pair of Aquila ivahlbergi descended with loud cries and 



