T2 
VEETEBRATA. 
THE EAGLE OWL. 
mark of affection repeated. The game which the old ones carried to it consisted chiefly of young 
partridges newly killed, hut sometimes a little spoiled. On one occasion a moor-fowl was brought 
so fresh that it was actually warm under the wings, and at another time a putrid lamb was 
deposited." 
The Great Horned Owl, or Cat-Owl, B. Virginianus, (see engraving, page 64,) is two feet 
long ; the horns three inches, consisting of thirteen or fourteen feathers ; the eyes golden yellow ; 
upper parts dusky, finely penciled on a tawny and whitish ground ; beneath, elegantly marked 
with transverse bands of brown on a bright tawny ground, mixed with white. It is found in 
almost every part of the United States, but is becoming scarce in thickly-settled regions. "His 
favorite residence," says A¥ilson, "is in the dark solitudes of deep swamps, covered with a growth 
of gigantic timber ; and here, as soon as evening draws on, and mankind retire to rest, he sends 
forth such sounds as seem scarcely to belong to this world, startling the solitary pilgrim as he 
slumbers by his forest fire, 
" Milking night hideous." 
Along the mountainous shores of the Ohio, and amid the deep forests of Indiana, alone and re- 
posing in the woods, this ghostly Avatchman has frequently warned me of the approach of morn- 
ing, and amused me with his singular exclamations, sometimes sweeping down and around my 
fire, uttering a loud and sudden Waugh 0! Waugh 0! sufiicient to have alarmed a whole gar- 
rison. He has other nocturnal solos, no less melodious, one of which very strikingly resembles 
the half-suppressed screams of a person suffocating or throttled, and cannot fail of being exceed- 
ingly entertaining to a lonely, benighted traveler, in the midst of an Indian wilderness! 
« This species inhabits the country round Hudson's Bay, and extends even to the arctic regions, 
where it is often found white. It has also been seen white in the United States ; but this has 
doubtless been owing to disease or natural defect, and not to climate. It preys on young rabbits, 
squirrels, rats, mice, partridges, and small birds of various kinds. It has been often known to 
prowl about the farm-house, and carry off chickens from roost. A very large one, wing-broken 
