THE ATHI EIYER 
211 
Notable also were the great eagle-owls that came 
sailing silently down the glen before the beaters—great 
mottled fellows, grey and black (Bubo maculosus), that 
perched on some boulder, and sat there snapping and 
seemingly inclined to resent the intrusion on discovering 
one close by. Either these owls or the still bigger and 
PENNANT-WINGED NIGHTJAR. 
very handsome Bubo lacteus were responsible for most 
unearthly “ hootings ” which we heard at times, startling 
the midnight echoes. There were also two kinds of 
eagles: the larger, light-breasted and broad-tailed, with 
short rounded wings, was the crowned hawk-eagle 
(Spizaetus coronatus), a fierce and powerful species that 
made magnificent stoops after our startled guinea-fowl— 
these, however, escaping by tumbling pell-mell among 
the scrub, the eagle buoyantly sweeping upwards with a 
little wild cry of vexation. The actual “stoop” was a 
fine sight—the wings being gradually drawn in at the 
shoulder till the great bird resembled an arrow-head, and 
