THK



Hvicultural flftagasmc,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICU LTURAL SOCIETY.



VOL. VI



II. —N O. 3 .



All r



ighls reserved.





January, 1902.





ON THE BREEDING OF THE SPOTTED EAGLE OWL.


(Bubo maculosus).


By J. Lewis Bonhote.


I have long had an affection for Owls as aviary inmates,

and consequently when, for the fourth month, I saw a pair of

Spotted Eagle Owls still confined in the same small cage at a

well-known London dealers, apparently healthy but blackened

by a winter’s fog, I took compassion on them and purchased them

at a price considerably below their value when first landed from

South Africa.


The Spotted Eagle Owl fBubo viaculosusj is, for an Eagle

Owl, a small bird, being but slightly larger than the Brown

Owl of our own country. In colour it is dark sepia brown,

mottled and barred with white, and, like all Eagle Owls, has two

conspicuous tufts of feathers, erroneously called ears, situated on

either side at the top of the head. The only other point to be

noticed about the plumage of this species is the patch of white

below the chin, which, though more conspicuous in the male, is

found in both sexes; but is hardly visible except when the throat

is distended as they hoot, and may possibly serve as a dis¬

tinguishing mark enabling the vocalist to be localized.


During the first few months, namely the summer of 1900,

after their arrival in my aviaries, they devoted themselves

chiefly to removing the stains of travel, and both moulted out

into a bright and clean plumage ; although unfortunately the

female has an injured wing, which prevents her from flying, an

injury for which I have since been rather grateful.


The aviaries being crowded at the time of their arrival, it

was not until last December that I was able to move them to a

sufficiently commodious apartment; but, being of a rather

sluggish nature, they did not seem to avail themselves of their



