STRIGIDiE. 149 



development of the external aperture of the ear, with its fringes, 

 is also wisely formed to catcli the faintest sound, as if Nature 

 had taken pleasure in enabling them to fulfil the peculiar 

 mission assigned them in keeping down an exuberance of those 

 destructive creatures which roam about in the dark ; but, along 

 with their sensitive hearing and sight, when we add the peculiar 

 lightness and noiselessness of their flight, the care and perfection 

 of Nature is complete. The margins of their wing feathers 

 being loose and divided into fine filaments, offer the least 

 possible resistance in passing through the air, while their pro- 

 gress is by a slow and gentle motion of them, which did not 

 escape the observing eye of Nature's poet, who in "Henry VI." 

 makes Warwick attribute the loss of the Battle of St Albans to 

 the slow use of his own soldiers' weapons — 



" Their weapons like to lightning came and went ; 

 Our soldiers — like the night oivVs lazy flight, 

 Or like a lazy thrasher with a flail — 

 Fell gently down as if they struck their friends." 



They prey on small quadrupeds, such as mice, or birds, moths 

 and beetles, some of them occasionally on fishes. Small birds 

 and mice are usually swallowed whole, the indigestible parts 

 disgorged in pellets. Their nocturnal habits, gloomy haunts, 

 harsh and " eerie" hooting, have characterised the owl as a bird 

 of ill omen, which is borne out by Henry VI. exclaiming — just 

 before being stabbed by hunchback Gloster — 



" The owl shrieked at thy birth, an evil sign ; 

 Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempests shook down trees ; 

 The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top, 

 And chattering pies in dismal discords sung." 



And in the same play, Edward orders in the dead body of 

 Clifford, saying — 



" Bring forth that fatal screech-owl to our house, 

 That nothing sung, hut death to us and ours ; 

 Now death shall stop his dismal threatening sound, 

 And his ill-boding tongue no more shall speak." 



The conjuror Bolingbroke also says to the Duchess of Gloster 

 before calling up the spirits — 



" Patience, good lady ; wizards know their times ; 

 Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night, 

 The time of night when Troy was set on fire ; 

 The time when screech-owls cry, and bandogs howl, 

 And spirits walk, and ghosts break up their graves — 

 That time best fits the work we have in hand." 



