EXPRESSION IN THE ANIMAL EYE 197 
narrow line of black in the centre. The reason that 
the stuffed foxes’ heads to be seen in so many country 
houses bear the amiable and most un-foxy expression 
which they do, is that the “ artist ” who stuffs them, 
sticks in nice brown glass eyes with black pupils, 
which he takes from the compartment labelled 
“ dogs ” in the curious box in which glass eyes for 
all creatures, from tom-tits to stags, are kept duly 
sorted for use. Cats’ eyes are by no means devoid 
of a pleasing expression, except in strong light ; but 
among them the dark-grey iris of the Angora and 
some of the “ blue ” cats give a look of repose and 
serenity which the brassy orbs of the yellow-eyed 
varieties never possess. A larger and more striking- 
example of the same difference is found in contrast 
of the yellow eyes of the black leopard at the Zoo, 
one of the most unpleasant-looking of the big felidce , 
and the dark, convex eyes of the ocelot. But the 
most striking instance of the immense difference 
between the effect of the light eye and the dark, is 
seen in the case of a new species of eagle-owl which 
has just been brought to the Zoo from Mashonaland. 
The great brown eagle-owl of Northern Europe, with 
its huge, round, yellow-and-black eyes with which 
it sternly stares the visitor out of countenance, has 
a fierce, wide-awake, resentful expression exactly in 
keeping with its character. The “ milky eagle-owl,” 
a splendid bird, with plumage barred with wavy lines 
at the Zoo seem less affected by bright sunlight than the English 
species. 
