32 A BIRD BOGEY. 



female commenced sitting. When next-I visited 

 the tree, both young and old were gone, much to 

 my disgust and annoyance. By the scattered 

 feathers, that lay ominously beneath the tree, I 

 imagine a prowling martin or fisher had played 

 havoc with my pet family, and devoured, perhaps, 

 both parents and children. 



The Indians, without exception, hold this little 

 owl in terrible dread. To see one in the day, or 

 to hear its feeble cry, not unlike a stifled scream, 

 is a fatal omen to brave or squaw ; the hearer or 

 near relative is sure to die ere the end of the 

 moon. To kill one is an unpardonable heresy. 

 I nearly got into very serious trouble for shoot- 

 ing a specimen of this little owl. An Indian 

 deputation, headed by their chief, waited on me, 

 and protested against my risking theirs and my 

 own inevitable destruction. All reasoning was 

 futile, and there was nothing for it but to procure 

 all the mystic birds and mammals by stealth. 



It is a curious fact that owls, in every part of 

 the world, have always been deemed birds of ill- 

 omen. The crumbling ruins of an ancient 

 monastery, the old tower in the ivy-clad castle, 

 and the ghost's chamber in a haunted house, are 

 invariably associated with owls and goblins. 



Pliny, in his ' Natural History,' when speaking 



