THE ATHI EIVER 



211 



Notable also were the great eagle-owls that came 

 sailing silently down the glen before the beaters — great 

 mottled fellows, grey and black {Bubo maculosus), that 

 perched on some boulder, and sat there snapping and 

 seemingly inclined to resent the intrusion on discovering 

 one close by. Either these owls or the still bigger and 



PENNANT-WINGED NIGHTJAR. 



very handsome Buho lacteus were responsible for most 

 unearthly " hootings " which we heard at times, startling 

 the midnight echoes. There were also two kinds of 

 eagles : the larger, light-breasted and broad-tailed, with 

 short rounded wings, was the crowned hawk-eagle 

 (Spizaetus coronatus), a fierce and powerful species that 

 made magnificent stoops after our startled guinea-fowl — 

 these, however, escaping by tumbling pell-mell among 

 the scrub, the eagle buoyantly sweeping upwards with a 

 little wild cry of vexation. The actual "stoop" was a 

 fine sight — the v/iugs being gradually drawn in at the 

 shoulder till the great bird resembled an arrow-head, and 



