238 THE BOOK OF BIRDS 



desert wadys near Beersheba — in fact, everywhere where 

 man has been and is not." 



The same writer goes on to say, " Its cry is a loud, 

 prolonged, and very powerful hoot. I know nothing which 

 more vividly brought to my mind the sense of loneliness 

 and desolation than the re-echoing hoot of two or three of 

 these great Owls, as I stood at midnight among the ruined 

 temples of Baalbek." 



A later naturalist, Prince Rudolph of Austria, also 

 testifies to this bird's love of lonely places. " More perhaps 

 even than the eagle, it has suffered from the inroads of 

 civilization, for it demands perfect quiet, and vast wilder- 

 nesses are its true home." 



He gives an interesting account of how, in one of the 

 wilder parts of his own country, he tried to bag an Eagle 

 Owl. Its nest was in a hole in an old willow tree, in a 

 wooded swamp. 



" Slowly we neared a little opening," he says, " in the 

 midst of which stood an old rotten willow, and seldom have 

 I seen so remarkable a tree. Its twisted trunk only rose 

 a couple of yards above the water, and was quite branchless 

 and leafless, and also blackened by lightning and split 

 down the middle ; while at its upper end was a large hole 

 leading into the hollow stem. This willow served as a fit 

 abode for the gloomy Eagle Owl, the king of its race." 



His hunting companion startled the bird out of its 

 retreat by a sharp rap on the tree, but the prince's shot 

 was a failure, and the Owl flew away into the dark depths 

 of the wood. Vexed and chagrined, he sat awhile in his 

 boat, being assured by his companion that when the Eagle 

 Owl is shot at and not fatally wounded it soon returns, 

 for if it can do so it always prefers to get back to the 

 familiar shelter of its own nest. 



