294 
EAGLE OWL. 
islands,” thus implying that (in 1804) the bird 
had either been lately seen or heard of. Montague 
states, that it has been shot in Yorkshire and 
Sussex, also in Kent ;* and Mr Selby, in a note, 
states, “ I have been lately informed, from good 
authority, that one of the above species was killed 
on the upland muirs in the county of Durham 
some years ago.” In Ireland Mr Thompson has 
not seen it, but Mr Stewart in his catalogue of the 
birds of Donegal remarks, “ Four of these birds 
paid us a visit for two days, after a great storm 
from the north, when the gTound was covered 
with snow ; they have not since been found here : 
as I am informed that a pair of them breed on 
Tory Island, about nine miles to the north of this 
coast, it is probable that they came from that 
island.” f 
So far as we understand the habits of this bird, 
it continues in the seclusion of the forests or 
■wooded precipices during the day, hunting in the 
twilight, perhaps during dull weather at all times. 
Temminck gives ruined buildings as occasionally 
selected for its breeding places, also the clefts of 
rocks ; Mr Hewitson mentions its nest as placed 
on the ground in bare and bleak rocky districts ; 
the number of eggs is said to be from two to four, 
rarely the latter, of considerable size, pure white, 
* Pennant Br. Zool. 8vo. edit. 1812, i. p. 254. 
t" Loudon’s Mag. of Nat. Hist. v. p. 581. 
