EAGLE OWL. 
5o 
dicular. A party of village ladies watching us from below 
were very successful in imitating the owls, but the owls 
themselves would not answer. We waited at the nest a 
long time in the hope that they would show themselves: 
but it was not till we had left it that we saw them again 
sitting on the topmost shoots of spruce firs with their 
ears finely relieved against the sky, and as we were nearly 
in the village again they hooted with a troubled note. 
I have visited three other sites of nests of this bird, and 
they were all of similar character upon ledges in or over 
cliffs. They were all unsheltered overhead. Sunshine 
seems to be rather courted than avoided. This season 
is a week or fortnight later than usual.” 
Mr. J. H. Gurney has thrice recorded in the “ Zoolo¬ 
gist” the interesting fact that a pair of Eagle Owls, the 
property of Mr. Fountaine, have for three successive 
years laid their eggs and reared their young ones in 
confinement. The eggs were in every instance three in 
number; and as Mr. Gurney remarks, “ it may be safely 
assumed to be the normal number of eggs produced by 
this species,” especially since the nest found by Mr. 
Wolley confirms the assumption. One of the nests found 
by Linnaeus contained three young ones and a rotten 
egg. The first egg of the first year “ was observed on 
the 13th of April, and the two others about a week after¬ 
wards ; two young ones were found to be hatched on the 
19tli, and the other on the 22nd of May.” How very 
nearly this corresponds with Mr. Wolley’s discovery; two 
of his young ones were newly hatched when he found 
them on the 20th of May. The first egg of the two 
following years mentioned by Mr. Gurney, was laid so 
early as the 10th of March. The period of incubation, 
reckoning from the laying of the first egg to the hatching 
of the first young one, was in each case thirty-six days. 
