268 



ACCIPITRES. BIRDS.- 



ally placed upon the ledge of a rock, or the walls of old 

 ruins, but sometimes on the ground. The eggs are 

 two or three in number, and pure white. The parents 

 appear to attend to their young with great devotion, at 

 least if we may judge from the following anecdote 

 related by the late Bishop of Norwich, in his " Familiar 

 History of Birds." This instance of parental solicitude 

 " was witnessed by a Swedish gentleman, who resided 

 several years on a farm near a steep mountain, on the 

 summit of which two Eagle Owls had built their nest. 

 One day in the month of July, a young bird, having 

 quirted the nest, was caught by the servants. This bird 

 was, considering the season of the year, well feathered; 

 but the down appeared here and there between those 

 feathers which had not yet attained their full growth. 

 After it was caught it was shut up in a large hencoop, 

 when, to his surprise, on the following morning a fine 

 young partridge was found lying dead before the door 

 of the coop. It was immediately concluded that this 

 provision had been brought there by the old owls, 

 which no doubt had been making search in the night- 

 time for their lost young one and such was, indeed, 

 the fact ; for night after night, for fourteen days, was 

 the same mark of attention repeated. The game which 

 the old ones carried to it consisted chiefly of young 

 partridges, for the most part newly killed, but sometimes 

 a little spoiled. On one occasion a moorfowl was 

 brought, so fresh that it was actually warm under the 

 wings ; and at another time a putrid stinking lamb was 

 deposited." 



This bird is frequently seen in confinement, when it 

 hisses like a cat, and snaps its bill at any object which 

 annoys it, but rarely emits any regular cry. Sir 

 William Jardine mentions that a specimen kept by 

 him used to "bark" incessantly at night, making a 

 noise so exactly like the bark of some little cur, as 

 to irritate his large housedog, whose angry replies 

 disturbed the whole neighbourhood. 



THE VIRGINIAN HORNED OWL (Btibo virginianus), 

 which was formerly supposed to be identical with the 

 European species, is a common inhabitant of the United 

 States of America, from which it appears to extend its 

 range to a considerable distance both north and south. 

 Its favourite residence is amongst the gigantic trees of 

 the swamps, where in the morning and evening it 

 startles the echoes by loud and sudden cries of Watigh 

 ! Waugh ! sufficient, as Wilson says, to alarm a 

 whole garrison. The same writer gives the following 

 striking account of the varied vocal powers of this 

 bird : " He has other nocturnal solos, no less melo- 

 dious, one of which very strikingly resembles the half- 

 suppressed screams of a person suffocating, or throttled, 

 and cannot fail of being exceedingly entertaining to 

 a benighted traveller, in the midst of an Indian wilder- 

 ness!" The American Indians, like many of their 

 more civilized brethren, on this side of the Atlantic, 

 entertain a strong superstitious feeling with regard to 

 owls;, and this Great American Horned Owl, which 

 appears to possess the properties necessary for inspiring 

 superstitious dread in a pre-eminent degree, is made 

 use of by the priests of some tribes of Indians as a 

 fitting symbol of the supposed mysteries of their office. 



The Virginian Horned Owl is nocturnal in its habits. 



sleeping during the day either in the hollow of a tree, 

 or under the shadow of the dense masses of foliage 

 of the cypress swamps. Its food consists of rabbits, 

 squirrels, rats, mice, partridges, and other small birds 

 and quadrupeds; and it occasionally steals chickens 

 from their roosting places in the farm-yard. The nest, 

 which is of considerable size, and composed of a great 

 mass of sticks, lined with a few dry leaves and feathers, 

 is built on the forked branch of a tall tree, and in it the 

 female deposits four eggs, which are nearly round and 

 of a pure white colour. 



THE GOOGOO HORNED-OWL (Bubo bengalensis), the 

 most abundant and widely distributed of the large 

 owls of India, usually frequents rocky hills, ravines, 

 and old buildings, not unfrequently sheltering itself 

 for its diurnal slumbers in the numerous holes which 

 occur in such places. On the Neilgherries, how- 

 ever, it inhabits the wooded glens. In its general 

 habits it is nocturnal, but not so strictly so as some of 

 the preceding species ; it flies readily when disturbed 

 during the day, and commences its quest for food long 

 before dark. The Googoo preys principally upon rats 

 and lizards, but often diversifies its diet with small 

 birds, crabs, and large insects. Its usual cry is a single 

 long, clear, and loud hoot, but it sometimes indulges in 

 one of those imitations of the noise made by an animal 

 undergoing the operation of strangling, which appear to 

 be such a favourite mode of exercising their vocal 

 powers with many owls. The nest is always made in 

 a hole or burrow in a bank or rock, and the young are 

 said to be invariably two in number. 



THE ORIENTAL HORNED-OWL (Bubo oiientalis}. 

 This, which is also an Indian species of great size and 

 strength, inhabits the recesses of dense and lofty woods 

 and forests, where the deep shade of the foliage makes 

 a sort of twilight even at noon-day, and thus enables 

 this bird to seek its prey at a time when most of its 

 relatives are taking their repose. Its chief activity is. 

 however, at night, when it issues forth into the open 

 country. The food of this owl consists principally of 

 pheasants, hares, rats, and snakes; but it sometimes 

 preys upon the fawns of the small Indian deer, and Mr 

 Jerdon was informed by an intelligent native that fish 

 also form a part of its diet, and that it will dive to some 

 depth for them. 



THE YELLOW- TOOTED OWL (Ketupa flavipes). 

 Besides the preceding, several species of Horned-Owls 

 inhabit the East Indies and the adjacent islands, and 

 of these three have been formed into a peculiar genus, 

 which has been named Ketupa, from the Javanese name 

 of the species first described. The most striking dis- 

 tinctive character of these birds consists in their having 

 the whole of the feet bare of feathers, and covered with 

 a granular or irregularly scaly skin. 



The Yellow-Footed Owl is a tolerably common species 

 in many parts of India, especially towards the north, 

 and also abounds in the Indian Islands and in Siam. 

 It is a large, heavy, clumsy, but powerful bird, which 

 flies well by day, and is usually found in the vicinity of 

 rivers, where it preys upon fish and crabs. Amongst 

 the Siamese, according to Mr. Finlayson, "the skull of 

 this bird is held in considerable estimation as a medicine 

 in small-pox, and chiefly to check and alleviate the 



