Eagle Owl and Peewit 225 
the sound they produce as they “shy” at an intruder, which is 
like that of an electric fan—they cross the view of the expectant 
shooter and spoil many a fleeting chance of a shot at Wigeon. 
It was therefore with no small joy and gratification that one 
evening in March 1907 when crouching in a marsh after sundown 
for the Wigeon to drop in, and with the Peewits doing their 
Ss 
best to annoy and disconcert me, that I beheld in the fading 
western light a glorious Eagle Owl skimming straight towards 
me. At the same instant a Peewit passed within a few feet of 
my face and next moment there was a rush of wings and a cry 
and a flutter and I knew my friend had replenished his larder 
up in the sierra and that the two hungry owlets in the heather 
would not go supperless that night. 
As to the Eagle Owls preying upon the Kestrels, I have no 
ocular proof of how they manage it. But I know of several Owls’ 
larders which are always full, year after year, of Kestrels primary 
feathers and other remains. As_ Kestrels, especially when in 
colonies, are very much given to fluttering around their nesting 
stations and making a considerable disturbance about sundown, | 
imagine that the Owls take this opportunity to capture a certain 
number of them. 
I have for over five years kept the couple of Eagle Owls whose 
portrait is given on p. 320 in an aviary where they have flourished 
exceedingly and consumed an almost incredible number of rats. 
Excessively savage as already described when first taken, they 
gradually became more amenable and would consent to take food 
from me and eat in my presence. My repeated prolonged absences, 
however, during the winter months in Spain have caused them to 
revert to their original uncouth habits, so much so that now it is no 
unusual thing for them to strike violently at me when I enter their 
dwelling. This is a good-sized cage built around an ivy tree and 
with a high pent thatched roof in the deep shadow of which is fixed 
