EAGLE OWL. 47 



amongst the heather at the foot of a fir tree ; the 

 bird and eggs having been brought to him, quite fresh, 

 at a time when he was endeavouring to procure 

 specimens of the eggs of the short-eared species. A 

 very singular variety of this owl, in the collection of 

 the Rev. C. J. Lucas, of Burgh, was killed in that 

 neighbourhood on the 5th of July, 1861. This beautiful 

 specimen had the wings, lower part of the breast and 

 vent, outer feathers of the tail, feet, and legs, and the 

 edges of the facial disk pure white, the feathers of the 

 back and upper part of the breast also slightly mottled 

 with white. This example is the more remarkable 

 from these birds being so rarely subject to any variation 

 in plumage. 



Although the Eagle Owl (Bubo maximus,) has not, I 

 believe, occui-red in a wild state in Norfolk, I think that 

 the fact of a pair having regularly bred in confinement 

 at Easton, near Norwich, for the last fourteen years, is 

 worthy of record in the present work. Mr. Edward 

 Eountaine, the fortunate owner of these prolific birds, 

 purchased the female in 1848, at which time she had 

 been ah'eady twenty years in confinement, but the male 

 bird, procured at the same time, was said to be only a 

 year old. Of the first nest and eggs, in the spring of 

 1849, Mr. Gurney forwarded the following description to 

 the "Zoologist," (pp. 2452 and 2566,) which, with shght 

 alterations in dates and minor incidents, may be taken as 

 a fair summary of subsequent proceedings. After describ- 

 ing the eggs as deposited in a hollow scratched in the 

 ground in the further corner of the cage, into which a 

 little straw was afterwards introduced, and that during 

 the time of incubation the birds were unusually bold 

 and savage, he says — "The first egg was observed on 

 the 13th of April, and the two others about a week 

 afterwards. Two young ones were found to be hatched 

 on the 19th, and the other on the 22nd of May. They 



