AVES—OWL. 463 
THE EUROPEAN HORNED OWL, OR 
EAGLE OWL, 

Neale SSSI 



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Ar first view appears as large as an eagle, though when he comes to be 
observed more closely, he will be found much less, being but two feet in 
length. His eyes are large and transparent, encircled with an orange 
colored iris ; his ears are large and deep; his plumage is of reddish brown, 
marked on the back with black and yellow spots, and yellow only upor the 
belly. To its offspring it is very affectionate, and if they are taken from the 
nest and confined, it will assiduously supply them with food. This, how- 
ever, it accomplishes with such secrecy and sagacity, that itis almost 
impossible to detect it in the act. This bird has been seen in Scotland, and 
in Yorkshire, but is notcommon in England. 
All birds of the owl kind have one common mark, by which they are 
listinguished from others; their eyes, like those of tigers and cats, are 
formed for seeing better in the dusk, than in the broad glare of sunshine. 
The pupil, in fact, is capable of opening very wide, or shutting very close; 
and, by contracting it, the brighter light of the day, which would act too 

1 Striaz bubo, Lis. The genvs Strix bas the bill bent from its origin; base surrounded 
by a cere, covered wholly or in part by stiff’ hairs; head large, much feathered; nostrils 
lateral, pierced in the anterior margin of the cere, rounded, open, concealed by hairs 
directed forwards; eyes very large, orbits surrounded by feathers ; legs feathered, often to 
the claws ; three toes before and one behind, separate, the exterior reversible; the first 
wing feathers dentated on their exterior border, the third the longest. 
