The eagle owl

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 88897

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Sea Change" <nakedkali at y...> 
wrote:
> Berit said: 
>  [long interesting post majorly-snipped by Sea Change]
> 
> > Anyone noticed any more eagle owl acticity in the books, apart 
from 
> > the owl that brings Draco a fresh supply of treats every week 
(that's 
> > an eagle owl if I remember corrrectly)?
> 
> 
> ----------
> 
> Sea Change responds:
> 
> No!  What an interesting find!  I had always assumed because Hedwig
> was huge and prone to biting people that an eagle owl is what she 
was.
>  On rereading the first book, apparently her size and ill temper 
(and
> perhaps other monstrous traits) are simply accountable to the fact
> that she's the kind of owl that Hagrid would like, and it was him 
who
> gave her to Harry.
> 
> Maybe the eagle owl is the Malfoy family bird, and it appears 
whenever
> Lucius is up to something?

Berit replies:

As Geoff has already pointed out, Harry's owl Hedwig is a snowy owl, 
an arctic breed.

The mentionings of eagle owls that I know of from canon suggests that 
this owl breed probably is expensive to buy and therefore maybe is 
reserved for rich and important wizard families like the 
Malfoys? "Ordinary" wizarding families would keep a cheaper barn owl 
for instance. I don't think the owl that delivered a message to 
Voldemort was the Malfoy owl though; Lucius would probably have known 
it if his owl were delivering messages between Crouch Jr and 
Voldemort. But Lucius didn't know anything of Voldemort's plans for 
his imminent return, or that Crouch Jr was alive and well at Hogwarts 
until his mark burned upon his forearm at the end of GoF (he and the 
other DE's need to be filled in by Voldemort). So my guess is that 
the second eagle owl in canon belongs to the Crouch family. If anyone 
knows of any other eagle owl sightings in the HP books, please tell 
me!

Berit
http://home.no.net/berjakob/snape.html