EAGLE OWL. 105 



RAPTORES. STRIGIDffi. 



PLATE XXI. 



EAGLE OWL. 



Bubo Maximus. (Sibbald.) 



The greater number of species of the Owl genus are of 

 nocturnal habits, lying concealed by day, and seeking their 

 prey during the morning and evening twilight, or by the 

 light of the moon. Among these may be classed the short- 

 tailed species, the pupils of whose eyes are so constructed 

 as to admit a great number of rays of light : these are 

 unable to sustain the full glare of day, but whether retired in 

 thick foliage, or hidden in the gloom of an old ruin, they 

 are sufficiently able to see what is passing around them to 

 escape on the approach of danger. Some species, whose 

 habits are more diurnal, are able to avail themselves of the 

 full sense of sight, even in open day : these pursue their 

 prey on the wing, or lay in wait for it in the shelter of a 

 wood or forest. Such are chiefly those species whose heads 

 are unfurnished with tufts, and whose tail feathers, more 

 or less graduated, extend beyond the tips of the wings. 



All the birds comprised in this genus have their feathers 

 soft to the touch, of a downy or silky character. They 

 seize their prey with their claws, and, except when greatly 

 pressed by hunger, refuse all but living food. They moult 

 but once in the year, and the plumage of the young birds 

 differs in most species but little from that of the adult. The 

 beak of the Owl is strongly hooked from the base, with 



