GREAT HORNED OWL, OR CAT OWL. 125 



of American birds. The aboriginal inhabitants of the 

 country dread his boding howl, dedicating his effigies to 

 their solemnities, and, as if he were their sacred bird of 

 Minerva, forbid the mockery of his ominous, dismal, and 

 almost supernatural cries. His favorite resort, in the dark 

 and impenetrable swampy forests, where he dwells in 

 chosen solitude secure from the approach of every enemy, 

 agrees with the melancholy and sinister traits of his char- 

 acter. To the surrounding feathered race he is the Pluto 

 of the gloomy wilderness, and would scarcely be known 

 out of the dismal shades where he hides, but to his victims, 

 were he as silent as he is solitary. Among the choaking, 

 loud, guttural sounds which he sometimes utters, in the 

 dead of night, and with a suddenness which always 

 alarms, because of his noiseless approach, is the 'loaugh 

 ho ! 'toangh ho ! which, Wilson remarks, was often ut- 

 tered at the instant of sweeping down around his camp 

 fire. Many kinds of owls are similarly dazzled and at- 

 tracted by fire-lights, and occasionally finding, no doubt, 

 some offal or flesh, thrown out by those who encamp in 

 the wilderness, they come round the nocturnal blaze 

 with other motives than barely those of curiosity. The 

 solitary travellers in these wilds, apparently scanning the 

 sinister motive of his visits, pretend to interpret his ad- 

 dress into "'TWio ^ cooks for you all!" and with a 

 strong guttural pronunciation of the final syllable, to all 

 those who have heard this his common cry, the resem- 

 blance of sound is well hit, and instantly recalls the 

 ghastly serenade of his nocturnal majesty in a manner 

 which is not easily forgotten. The shorter cry, which we 

 have mentioned, makes no inconsiderable approach to that 

 uttered by the European brother of our species, as given 

 by BufTon, namely, 'he-hoo, 'hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, &c. The 

 Greeks called this transatlantic species 3yas, either 

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