GREAT EAGLE-OWL. 427 



the limbs remarkably powerful, and proportionally as 

 robust as those of the Golden Eagle. 



The bill is short, deep, and very strong ; the cere ra- 

 ther long", and, almost entirely bare, although concealed 

 by the neighbouring feathers. The upper mandible 

 has its dorsal line curved from the base, slightly so 

 along the cere, the ridge broad and convex on the cere, 

 narrowed and convex in the rest of its extent, the sides 

 sloping and flat at the base, convex towards the end, 

 the edges soft and straight to the middle, then sharp 

 and curved, with a slight festoon, the tips very strong, 

 acute and perpendicular. The lower mandible has the 

 angle broad and rounded, the crura wide, the short 

 dorsal line slightly convex, the back broad and round- 

 ed, the sides convex, the edges inflected and sharp to- 

 wards the end, with a deep sinus or notch close to the 

 rounded tip. The mouth is an inch and three-quarters 

 wide. The palate is rather convex, but with a central 

 depression corresponding to the tongue, having a me- 

 dial and two lateral soft ridges, on which are small pa- 

 pillfB directed backwards. The upper mandible is flat- . 

 tened within, with a soft tubercular central ridge, its 

 horny part concave. The aperture of the posterior 

 nares is short, broadly oblong, anteriorly linear ; on 

 each side is a laige space covered with papillae, termi- 

 nating behind in a curved papillate edge. The tongue 

 is fleshy, oblong, an inch and two-twelfths in length, 

 deeply sagittate and papillate behind, its posterior half 

 also papillate; it has a medial groove, the tip is slight- 

 ly emarginate, and its free inferior part is covered with 

 a horny plate. 



The whole length of the intestinal canal is five feet 



