THE BENEFITS IT CONFERS ON MAN. 271 



old and deep-rooted prejudices are seldom overcome ; and when I 

 look back into the annals of remote antiquity, I see too clearly that 

 defamation has done its worst to ruin the whole family, in all its 

 branches, of this poor, harmless, useful friend of mine. Ovid, nearly 

 two thousand years ago, was extremely severe against the owl. In 

 his " Metamorphoses " he says, 



" Foedaque fit volucris, venturi nuncia luctus, 

 Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen." 



In his " Fasti " he openly accuses it of felony, 



" Nocte volant, puerosque petunt neutricis egentes." 

 Lucan, too, has hit it hard, 



" Et laetse jurantur aves, bubone sinistro : " 



and the Englishman who continued the " Pharsalia " says, 

 " Tristia mille locis Stygius dedit omina bubo." 



Horace tells us that the old witch Canidia -used part of the 

 plumage of the owl in her dealings with the devil, 



" Plumamque nocturnae strigis." 



Virgil, in fine, joined in the hue and cry against this injured 

 family, 



" Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo 

 Ssepe queri, et longas in fletum ducere voces." 



In our own times we find that the village maid cannot return home 

 from seeing her dying swain without a doleful salutation from the 

 owl, 



" Thus homeward as she hopeless went 



The churchyard path along, 

 The blast grew cold, the dark owl scream'd 

 Her lover's funeral song." 



Amongst the numberless verses which might be quoted against 

 the family of the owl, I think I only know of one little ode which 

 expresses any pity for it. Our nursery-maid used to sing it to the 

 tune of " The Storm," " Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer." I re- 

 member the first two stanzas of it: 



