EAGLE OWL. 189 



overpowered ; whilst fawns, hares, arid rabbits form a prominent feature 

 of his diet. Yet he also takes much more lowly game, and hunts for the 

 various "small deer" which haunt his wild solitudes, as mice, rats, and 

 moles. The Jays and Crows, so abundant in northern forests, also form 

 part of his fare ; and in more cultivated districts he preys on Pheasants 

 and Partridges. 



This Owl appears to bear confinement well, and is a bird constantly to 

 be seen in menageries and birdfanciers' shops, and has bred in confine- 

 ment at Arundel Castle and other places. Mr. E. Fountaine, of Easton, 

 near Norwich, has been singularly successful in his treatment of this bird 

 in captivity, and has induced it to breed and rear its progeny ; in ' The 

 Ibis ' for 1859, p. 273, a detailed description and full particulars will be 

 found of the nesting of this species in his aviary. The Eagle Owl must be 

 a bird of great longevity; for he mentions that the original hen bird, from 

 which he had so many eggs, had been kept twenty years in confinement 

 before she came into his possession. 



The Eagle Owl is an early breeder, and commences to lay in March or 

 early in April. It is essentially a forest-bird, generally breeding on some 

 strong branch or fork of a tree. It seldom, if ever, makes a nest of 

 its own ; but takes possession of any old nest that it can find, rarely 

 choosing one more than thirty feet from the ground. In the forests of 

 Pomerania, where it is frequently met with, it usually breeds in a tree; 

 but the eggs have very often been found in a slight hollow scratched in 

 the ground at the foot of the tree. It is very shy and wary at the nest, 

 and seems to possess as keen a sight to detect the presence of an enemy as 

 the most diurnal bird. Yon Homeyer related to me his repeated efforts to 

 shoot the old bird at the nest ; but, although he concealed himself as much 

 as possible, she always caught a glimpse of him before she got within shot, 

 and turned round and flew off. In the more mountainous forests, where 

 there are rocks, it seems to prefer a nesting-place, upon some ledge or 

 convenient shelf; but even in such a locality the eggs are not always laid 

 on the rocks. Wolley mentions two clutches in Lapland taken from the 

 ground under the shelter of the roots of a fallen tree. 



In the Parnassus I visited two nesting- places of this bird, from one of 

 which I obtained an egg, and from the other shot one of the parent birds. 

 In neither case was much nest made. The situation chosen was in one of 

 those clefts or caves so common in limestone rocks; and apparently it was 

 used as a roosting-place, for in both cases the young broods had flown. 



Linnseus met with an Eagle-OwPs nest on the higher hills of Lapland, 

 which contained an addled egg and two young birds. But the most graphic 

 and minute > *description of the nest of this fine bird is that by Wolley : 

 " It was on the 20th of May, and after climbing to the mysterious cave of 

 Skulberg, that our road lay under a steep mountain-side broken up into 



