Birds. 1019 



Notes on the Birds of Belgium. By M. Julian Deby. 



(Continued from page 981). 



Division V. 



Golden Eagle, Aquila Chrysaetos. Very scarce : a very few speci- 

 mens have been shot, during severe winters, on our downs, and in 

 some wild forests. 



White-tailed Eagle, Haliaetos albicilla. Young birds are some- 

 times shot during the winter months. This species is seldom met 

 with in the inland provinces ; I have, however, in my possession, a 

 living specimen, which was taken in a trap near Brussels. It was 

 a black-tailed or young bird, and at first was very shy ; when any one 

 came near, it would poke its head under the straw in a corner of its 

 cage : now, however, it has lost its timidity, and feeds before stran- 

 gers without apparent fear. When approached, it stretches out its 

 head and neck, and stares the spectator in the face, uttering all the 

 while a curious guttural blowing sound. It feeds on flesh, both raw 

 and cooked, fresh or putrid, as well as on fish ; when birds or hairy 

 quadrupeds are given to it, it plucks them rudely before eating them. 

 I have never noticed its ejecting indigestible pellets, as the Falconidae 

 are known to do. 



Aquila Gallica. Very rare. I have never seen any indigenous spe- 

 cimens, but Mr. De Selys mentions two instances of its capture. 



Hawk Owl, Strixfunerea. Included in our Fauna from the record 

 of one bird shot in 1830. 



Tengmalm's Night-owl, Strix Tengmalmi. Very rare. I possess 

 I believe the only specimen killed in the country : it was shot last 

 autumn, near Brussels. 



As I am writing about owls, I may perhaps recall the following re- 

 mark, which is not generally known, though noticed by several natu- 

 ralists many years ago. It is, that the nocturnal birds of prey have 

 the right and left ear differently formed, one ear being so made as to 

 hear sounds from above, and the other from below. This is beauti- 

 fully illustrated in the short-eared owl [Otus brachyotos), of the audi- 

 tory organs of which I here subjoin a description. Klein* was the 

 first ornithologist who noticed this conformation, which was lately re- 

 newed by Professor Vanbeneden,f with regard to Strix Otus. 



* Ordo Avium, p. 54. 

 f Memoir in Mem. Soc. Roy. Sc. de Liege, i. 121, pi. 3, f. 1, 2. 



