CHAP. viz. THE LONG-EARED OWL. 121 



The Birds that roam at night are more easily de- 

 scribed. Although the Bat comes out pretty early 

 in the evenings, it is not on night insects that he 

 chiefly feeds. It is rather on the day insects which 

 have not yet gone home to their rest. The bat flies 

 mostly at twilight, and inhabits ruins and buildings 

 as well as hollow trees in the woods. 



The Owl is a nocturnal bird of prey. It flits by, 

 as the twilight deepens into night, and hoots or 

 howls in hollow and lugubrious tones. Though 

 Edward was by no means given to fear^ he was once 

 scared at midnight by the screech of a Long-eared owl 

 (Strix otus). It was only about the third or fourth 

 night that he had gone out in search of specimens. 

 When he began his night-work, he was sometimes a 

 little squeamish ; but, as he became accustomed to it, 

 he slept quite as soundly out of doors as in bed. He 



Account of Scotland. "The eagle builds its eyrie in some inaccessible 

 rock, and continues from year to year to hatch its young in the 

 same spot. One of these noble birds was killed some years ago, 

 which measured upwards of six feet from tip to tip of the wings. 

 One of the keepers of the forest being one day reclining on the side 

 of a hill, observed an eagle hovering about for his prey, and, darting 

 suddenly down, it caught hold of a polecat, with which it rose up, 

 and flew away in the direction of an immense cliff on the opposite 

 hill. It had not proceeded far, when he . observed it abating its 

 course, and descending in a spiral direction, until it reached the 

 ground. He was led by curiosity to proceed towards the spot, 

 which was about a mile distant from him, and there he found the 

 eagle quite dead, with its talons transfixed in the polecat. The 

 polecat was also dead, with its teeth fixed in the eagle's gullet." 



