THE GREAT OWL. 



101 



Southern Asia, and the summer in the south of France. It feeds wholly upon beetles, 

 grasshoppers, and other insects." 



The length of this tiny Owl is only seven inches and a half, the female being a little 

 longer than her mate. The nest is generally placed in a hollow tree or the cleft of a rock, 

 and contains from two to four white eggs. It is a pretty little bird, the general colouring 

 being much as follows. The head is light brown, marked with several narrow dark-brown 

 streaks ; the back is variegated brown and chestnut, marked with dark bands and grey 

 mottlings. The wing is brown, speckled largely with white and grey, and the tail is 

 similarly barred and dashed with black and pale brown. The facial disk is greyish- white, 

 thicldy covered with small brown spots, and the two feather-tufts of the head are similarly 

 tinted. The imder portions of the body are greyish-white, with several streaks and dashes 

 of dark brown, and the legs are covered as 

 far as the toes with short speckled feathers. 

 The claws are nearly white at their base, 

 declining to blackish-brown at the tip ; the 

 toes are brown and the beak black. 



Although seemingly exceeding the golden 

 eagle in dimensions, the Geeat Owl is in 

 reality a very much smaller bird, owing its 

 apparent magnitude to its feathers and not to 

 its body. In weight it hardly exceeds one 

 quarter of that of the eagle, but in power of 

 muscle it is little inferior even to that royal 

 bird itself. 



The Great Owl, or Eagle Owl as it is 

 often called, inhabits the northern parts of 

 Europe, being especially common in Sweden, 

 Norway, Switzerland, and Russia, and being 

 found even in some parts of Italy and Turkey. 

 It is a very rare bird in our country, and 

 is only an occasional visitant to our shores. 

 When captured, however, the Eagle Owl is 

 easily reconciled to its habitation, and has 

 frequently been known to hatch and bring 

 up its young while in captivity. In its wild 

 state it makes a very rude nest upon some 

 convenient ledge of rock or other similar 

 locality, and lays two or three pure white, 

 rather giobrdar eggs. The young, when in 

 their first few days of independent life, would 

 hardly be recognised as Owls at all, being 

 mere shapeless lumps of grey woolly down. 

 The parent birds take great care of their 

 young, and are so fond of their offspring, 

 that when an Eagle Owl's nest has been 

 harried, and the young birds removed, the 

 parents have been known to supply them 

 with food for a period of fourteen days, 



laying dead partridges and other prey before the bars of the cage in which the young 

 birds were confined. 



The food of this Owl consists generally of grouse, partridges, hares, and otlier similar 

 game, and the bird is so powerful tliat it will successfully chase even larger prey. 

 Mr. Lloyd, in his well-known " Field Sports," gives the following description of the Eagle 

 Owl as it appears in the Scandinavian forests. 



" These Owls, Dr. Mellerborg assured me, will sometimes destroy dogs. Indeed, he 



GREAT OWL.— i?H6o miiximv.s. 



