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 
