10 Habits of the Barn Owl, 



I own I have a great liking for this bird ; and I have 

 offered it hospitality and protection on account of its persecu- 

 tions, and for its many services to me, — I say services, as 

 you will see in the sequel. I wish that any little thing I could 

 write or say might cause it to stand better with the world at 

 large than it has hitherto done : but I have slender hopes 

 on this score ; because old and deep-rooted prejudices are 

 seldom overcome ; and when I look back into the annals of 

 remote antiquity, I see too clearly that defamation has done 

 its worst to ruin the whole family, in all its branches, of this 

 poor, harmless, useful friend of mine. 



Ovid, nearly two thousand years ago, was extremely severe 

 against the owl. In his Metamorphoses he says : — 



" Foedaque fit volucris, venturi nuncia luctus, 

 Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen." * 



In his Fasti he openly accuses it of felony : — 



** Nocte volant, puerosque petunt nutricis egentes." f 



Lucan, too, has hit it hard: — 



" Et laetae jurantur aves, bubone sinistro :" J 



and the Englishman who continued the Pharsalia says — 

 " Tristia mille locis Stygius dedit omina bubo." § 



Horace tells us that the old witch Canidia used part of the 

 plumage of the owl in her dealings with the devil : — 

 " Plumamque nocturnae strigis. "|| 



Virgil, in fine, joined in the hue and cry against this in- 

 jured family : — 



" Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo 



Saepe queri, et longas in fletum ducere voces." 4- 



In our own times we find that the village maid cannot 

 return home from seeing her dying swain, without a doleful 

 salutation from the owl : — 



" Thus homeward as she hopeless went. 

 The churchyard path along. 

 The blast grew cold, the dark owl scream*d 

 Her lover's funeral song." 



Amongst the numberless verses which might be quoted 



* " Ul-omen'd in his form, the unlucky fowl, 



Abhorr'd by men, and call'd a screeching owl." Garth's Trans. 

 + " They fly by uight, and assail infants in the nurse's absence." 

 If " Even the ill-boding owl is declared a bird of good omen." 

 $ " The Stygian owl gives sad omens in a thousand places." 

 jl " A feather of the night owl." 



4* " And, on her palace top. 



The lonely owl with oft repeated scream 



Complains, and spins into a dismal length 



Her baleful shrieks." Trapp's Translation. 



