art 
CHAPTER. IV: 
THE EAGLE OWL (Bubo ignavus). 
Retiring habits—Residents of Gibraltar in 1776—First acquaintance in wild 
state—Prolonged search for nest—Successful after nineteen years—An 
Eagle Owl’s nest—An Owlet—Parental precaution—Favourite nesting- 
places—An Eagle Owl’s crag—Disadvantages of climbing alone—Descend 
to the nest—An Eagle Owl’s cavern—Manners and customs of young— 
A lower to a nest—Retriever as an assistant—Photographing Owlets in 
nest—Eagle Owls’ larders—Hunting at sundown—Kept in confinement— 
Savage nature—Courage—Voracity—Deadly feud with Aberdeen Terrier— 
Eagle Owls’ cries. 
the bounds of 
T would perhaps be difficult to 
find any one of the larger 
raptorial birds so well-known 
to all bird-lovers and yet so 
seldom seen in the wild state 
—save indeed by the very 
few who may chance to pene- 
trate into the remote districts 
as the Eagle Owl. 
For unlike the Vultures, Eagles 
it frequents 
and Harriers which inhabit the 
same regions and which, owing 
either to- their habit of soaring 
aloft or of beating a tract of 
country in quest of food, are 
often seen, the Eagle Owl de- 
lights in secluded valleys, beyond 
which it seldom emerges by day. 
