182 WILD LIFE IN CHINA 



Contrast this with^ the giant of the family — the great 

 Eagle Owl, from twenty to twenty-eight inches in length and, 

 to outward appearance, more than bulky in proportion. 

 Sti'i.v bubo, or Bubo ma.ximtis is indeed a magnificent bird, 

 and one can well imagine from an examination of specimens 

 in the museum that there may be some truth in the belief 

 held by many people that he is quite a match for the king of 

 birds himself, the golden eagle. His beak is terrible: his 

 talons even more so ; the fact that the legs, and even the 

 toes, are thickly feathered adding to their apparent massive 

 strength. The horns of the eagle owl spread out horizontally, 

 and are of firmer as well as longer structure than those of 

 the "eared" owls before mentioned. The pupil of the eye is 

 surrounded with a reddish orange iris, the blaze of which to 

 victims seized in the dark must be particularly terrible. For 

 the rest, the plumage is of the ordinary owl kind, brown, 

 grey, tawny and chocolate being mingled with all the 

 usual charm. 



The bird is one of very wide range, being found in 

 varieties or identical species in Europe, Asia, Africa, and 

 America. It is common in most parts of China, though the 

 only live specimen which I have seen in this particular 

 neighbourhood was one which lived in captivity, the property 

 of a friend of mine who was naturally very proud of it. This 

 bird escaped one night, and was heard on the roof of a 

 friend's house, where the children were scared nearly out of 

 their wits at the unwonted visitation. It is specially plentiful 

 about the beginning of winter when probably moving into its 

 winter quarters. There are many instances of its domestic- 

 ation. Indeed owls as a class are by no means hard to tame, 

 and are sometimes found useful in the destruction of rats 

 and mice. When caught young or taken from the nest, the 

 young birds continue to have the full support of their parents 

 if left in a cage or hen-coop to which the old birds have 

 access, the food brought, it has been noticed, being very 

 frequently young game birds, partridges, pheasants, etc. 



The strength of the eagle owl is such that no game smaller 

 than deer are secure from his attacks, and even young 

 fawns are sometimes killed, hares, pheasants, and others of 

 the larger game birds being amongst the most frequent 

 victims, though like many other birds of its kind, its larder 

 is frequently replenished from less lordly sources, crows, 

 rooks, snakes, lizards, frogs, and even fish and insects being 

 drawn on to meet the demands of a very healthy appetite. The 

 smaller of these disappear holus-bolus, the larger are torn 

 easily into assimilable pieces by the powerful beak. 



The cry of the eagle owl varies with the occasion. It 

 has been likened to the bark of a small dog. At other times 



