THE GREAT EAGLE-OWL. 155 



generally of considerable length, the muscles by which 

 they are put in motion are but little developed, and 

 are not supported by bony processes of proportional 

 strength. The feathers also are too soft, flexible, and 

 downy, to allow of their wings being put into powerful 

 action ; they consequently fly for the most part near 

 the ground, and produce not the slightest noise as they 

 glide slowlv and cautiously along. 



In all these characters we may trace an admirable 

 adaptation of the means employed to the end in view. 

 The peculiarities of their eyes and plumage evidently 

 fit the Owls in an especial degree for seeking their 

 food by night and on the surface of the ground. Daz- 

 zled by the splendour of the sun, the rays of which 

 would penetrate too copiously through their immense 

 pupils, they naturally withdraw during the day into 

 dark and solitary places, where they sit perched and 

 almost motionless awaiting the approach of dusk. Their 

 imperturbable gravity in this situation has somehow or 

 other obtained for them the enviable privilege of being 

 selected as the emblems of wisdom ; but their assumed 

 wisdom, like the cunning of the Fox, depends more 

 upon the defect of their visual faculties, than on any 

 superior intellectual capacity. If disturbed in their 

 retreats, they are totally incapable of seeking safety in 

 a prompt and open flight, but shuffle backwards and 

 forwards from place to place in an embarrassed and 

 uncertain manner, or remain fixed to one spot, ruffling 

 their plumage, assmning a variety of grotesque attitudes, 

 closing and reopening the nictitating membranes of 

 their eyes with ludicrous eflfect, and uttering a sharp 

 hissing sound expressive of their uneasiness, or clatter- 

 ing with their beaks. At such times the smaller birds, 

 blackbirds, thrushes, red-breasts, and jays, which seem 

 to be aware of their incapacity to defend themselves and 



