BUBO IGNAVUS. 143 



Facial disk incomplete above eyes, tufted ; no operculum. General 

 colour grey, with minute marks of brown and spots of dark brown. Legs 

 feathered ; toes bare. Iris yellow. Length 8^-10 inches. 



172. Bubo ignavus, T. Forster. The Eagle-Owl. 



Spanish. Bujo real. 



This Owl is not included in Favier's notes on the birds of 

 Tangier, though it is, no doubt, found in the mountainous 

 districts of Morocco ; indeed, we heard of a large Owl about 

 Tetuan, but could not obtain a specimen. 



They are resident in all rocky localities in Andalucia ; and 

 some frequent the "Rock," probably nesting in some of the 

 numerous inaccessible caverns of the east side. One was caught 

 in 1869 in a magazine near the Rock gun; having gone down 

 into the narrow space between the outer and the main wall of the 

 magazine, it was unable to rise. I had this bird alive for some 

 time, and ultimately sent it to Lord Lilford, in whose possession 

 it paired with another from Norway. I also had three young 

 from a nest near Castellar, about eighteen miles from Gibraltar. 

 While keeping these Owls, the wild ones used to come at night 

 close to the cage and answer the call of those that were shut up. 

 Its loud, melancholy, human-sounding note is sometimes to be 

 heard all night long up the Rock, and is usually supposed to be 

 the cry of the apes. 



They breed very early : judging from the size of the young 

 which were obtained, they would lay about the end of January; 

 and such, say the cabreros, is the case. I never could succeed in 

 discovering the nest, though I knew of several reputed nesting- 

 places, but on examining them found nothing but bones of 

 rabbits, rats, partridges, and small birds, never even seeing one 

 of the Owls, though the charcoal-burners, carboneros, assured 

 me that they had taken the young from these situations. One 

 man, however, said that these Owls bring the .young from their 

 nests to these caves. Verner reports that on 1st of April, 1894, 



