THE EAGLE OWL. 
571 
frequently: both birds being now fully occupied with their 
nursery preparations. The large nest is composed out¬ 
wardly of branches and sticks, and is lined with dry leaves 
and small twigs; it is ill built, and generally placed in 
either the cleft of a rock or in a hole in some ruined 
tower. The nest is never built in a tree but from neces¬ 
sity. The two or three eggs are also often found lying on 
the bare surface of the rock, without any nest whatever: 
they are round, coarse-grained and white, and somewhat 
larger than a Hen’s egg. The young are hatched in about 
three weeks: they are usually two in number, rarely 
three; they look, on their first appearance, like balls of 
cotton-wool, and keep up a continual hissing or shrill 
whistle; they remain a long time in the nest, and are so 
abundantly provided with food by the parent birds that 
one is sure to find a large heap of provisions at the nest. 
The Owlets often betray their presence to their innu¬ 
merable enemies by their cries, and suffer much persecution 
in consequence. When about eight weeks old they are 
able to fly, though they still remain for some time longer 
under the care of the old birds; these latter rarely 
wander far from a particular neighbourhood, and usually 
build in the very same place the following year. 
Young Eagle Owls, being in great requisition as decoys 
for catching other birds, are taken from the nest, and, be 
it said, at some risk of life and limb, as the old birds will 
not unfrequently attack the depredator; and he need be 
bold, indeed, who is indifferent to the anger of these savage 
birds. It is rare that the Eagle Owl can be approached 
close enough to afford an opportunity of killing it with a 
shot-gun, even at night; it is ever cautious. Most 
sportsmen, indeed, preserve afiy pair of these birds which 
may chance to breed in their neighbourhood, in spite of 
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