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 
Seepe queri, et longas in fletum ducere voces. 
Shakspeare, too, saddles this poor bird with the 
guilt of ominous predictions. 
Casca, in alluding to the events preceding 
Czsar’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, and modern writers, even in poetic 
composition, truthfully allude to its habits. 
VOL, II. D 
