“Baited with the Rabble’s Curse.” 
From the picture recently exhibited by Miss W. Austen, by kind permission of the artist. 
A Prince of Darkness. 
(SEE ABOVE ILLUSTRATION.) 
I here is probably no more unpopular individual 
in the bird world than the biggest of the owls, the 
Eagle owl. His talons are against every bird by 
night and by day, and they are only too glad of an 
opportunity to turn the tables so far as lies in their 
power. In Miss Austen’s beautiful picture, we may 
presume that the great owl has stayed up too late ; 
perhaps hunting has not been good of late, and 
although nothing, from a frog to a fawn, from a 
cockchafer to a capercailzie, comes amiss to him, 
it is quite possible that night after night has passed 
and left him hungry. So he has not gone home in 
good time, hoping, no doubt, that he may yet get 
a meal from some early-stirring creature. 
But, unfortunately for him, his watch-tower hap¬ 
pens to be in the line of flight of the outgoing 
rooks; and now he sits in the goldep. light of dawn, 
snapping and bristling impotently before the cow¬ 
ardly mob whose relations he has often garrotted 
at night, and bearing their insults as best he may. 
He is in no danger at present, for they dare not 
dash in upon him, knowing too well the power of 
his terrible talons; but he is nervous and uncom¬ 
fortable, and if the noise his persecutors are making 
attracts some of the diurnal birds of prey, matters 
may go hard with him. Falcon or goshawk may 
hustle him from his perch, for the hawks hate him 
as much as their enemies' the crows, and if the 
eagle comes in sight, and makes good his pounce 
at his nocturnal rival, there will be a battle to the 
death, and even if the king of birds is victorious, 
he will hardly arise “unwounded from the dread¬ 
ful close.” 
Such a scene as is depicted can hardly be real¬ 
ised in our islands, where the Eagle-owl is a rare 
visitant, open to the suspicion of being an “es¬ 
cape ”; but in the Continental forests, and all 
across Asia, the bird is widely spread, from Spain 
and Norway to China, and everywhere it is a 
scourge to game, though probably doing much good 
also in the destruction of vermin. The fact that 
he preys on the crow tribe whenever he gets the 
chance is a big point in his favour, for these black 
gentry have far too few foes to keep them down 
efficiently, and are much more destructive than the 
nobler birds of prey. The Spanish country-folk 
