A BIRD OF EVIL. 33 



of birds of evil, says : ' The owl is a dismal bird, 

 and very much dreaded in public auguries ; in- 

 habits deserts that are not only desolate, but 

 dreary and inaccessible ; it is a monster of night, 

 nor does it possess any voice but a groan.' 



Virgil alludes to it as foreboding the death of 

 Dido : 



Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo 

 Saepe queri, et longas in fleturn ducere voces. 



Shakspeare, too, saddles this poor bird with the 

 guilt of ominous predictions. 



Casca, in alluding to the events preceding 

 Caesar's death, says : 



And yesterday the bird of night did sit, 

 Even at noonday, upon the marketplace, 



Hooting and shrieking. 



In Egypt, in bygone years, if the Pacha pre- 

 sented a gentleman with a drawing or any re- 

 presentation of an owl, it was meant as a polite 

 hint, to the recipient of the gift, if he did not 

 dispose of his own life, the powers supreme would 

 save him the trouble. More modern poets rarely 

 scandalise or malign the owl's character. As 

 knowledge of the physical sciences has become 

 diffused, so the mists of superstition have 

 vanished, arid modern writers, even in poetic 

 composition, truthfully allude to its habits, 



VOL. n. D 



