Musings about Eagle Owls

[pigwidgeon37 at yahoo.it]

No: HPFGUIDX 27265

Hi, everybody,

there is a question that has been bothering me for some time and I'd 
really like to hear your opinions about it: 
The first part is a mere result of my disinterest in ornithology and 
of  not being an English native speaker: Is the eagle owl an owl 
species that really exists or has JKR made it up?
The second part is a bit more interesting: The Malfoy family owns an 
eagle owl (we hear about that various times, it always brings Draco 
parcels with sweets from home). But then, this animal is mentioned 
twice in GoF and in very interesting points:
1) GoF, British paperback edition, p.468/469: "
.Harry leaned on the 
window sill, looking out at the grounds, at the dark, rustling 
treetops of the Forbidden Forest, and the rippling sails of the 
Durmstrang ship. An eagle owl flew through the coil of smoke rising 
from Hagrid's chimney; it soared towards the castle, around the 
Owlery and out of sight."
2) same edition, p.500: "He was riding on the back of an eagle owl, 
soaring through the clear blue sky towards an old, ivy-covered house 
set high on a hillside. <clip> Harry had left the owl's back
he was 
watching now, as it fluttered across the room, into a chair with its 
back to him
there were two dark shapes on the floor beside the chair

both of them were stirring
 One was a huge snake
 the other was a 
man
 a short, balding man, a man with watery eyes and a pointed nose
 
he was wheezing and sobbing on the hearth-rug
'You are in luck, 
Wormtail,' said a cold, high-pitched voice from the depths of the 
chair in which the owl had landed. `You are very fortunate indeed. 
Your blunder has not ruined everything. He is dead.' "

The first citation, IMO, must be the letter Moody/Crouch jr. gets 
from Pettigrew about Crouch sr. having escaped, it's at the beginning 
of the chapter "The Madness of Mr. Crouch" and Bart jr. tells about 
having received a letter ( p.598/599: "My master guessed that he was 
heading for Hogwarts. My father was going to tell Dumbledore 
everything, to confess. He was going to admit that he had smuggled me 
from Azkaban. My master sent me word of my father's escape. He told 
me to stop him at all costs.") 
And the second is the letter Moody/Crouch sends back to Voldemort to 
report that he has successfully got Crouch sr. out of the way.

The Malfoys' owl and the one that carries letters back and forth 
between Voldemort and Moody/Crouch clearly can't be the same. So 
there are two of them and both belong to the most evil characters o 
the Potterverse. AFAIK, throughout the books, JKR never links an 
animal clearly to the good or the bad side, this would be the first 
time she did so. Animals are neutral (speaking only of animals, not 
of magical creatures!): Cats, rats, toads, dogs, owls don't have a 
sticker that says "good animal" or "bad animal", not even the spiders 
or the Giant Squid.
So, should we pay attention and become suspicious of people owning an 
eagle owl in the following books? I really wonder
.

Please, tell me what you think of it!
Susanne/pigwidgeon 37