Volume 20, Plate XXXII / Ornithology (Birds)

Great-Eared Owl, or Eagle Owl

Bubo maximus

A fine species whose stronghold lies in northern Europe, the Eagle Owl rests upon only a few uncertain British captures in Yorkshire, Sussex, Kent, and Durham, with reports from Orkney and visits to Donegal after a northern storm. It keeps to wooded seclusion by day and hunts in twilight, attacking rabbits and grouse, nesting on rocks or ground and laying two to four rounded white eggs; in captivity it barks incessantly at night like a cur.