324 



INTEODTJCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



family." One of them, the Hen-Harrier, is a most skilful 

 rat-catcher. " Skimming silently and rapidly through a rick- 

 yai-d, he seizes on any incautious Eat that may be exposed 

 to view ; and, from the habit this Hawk has of hunting very- 

 late in the evening, many of these vermin fall to his share. 

 Though of so small and light a frame, the Hen-Harrier 

 strikes down a Mallard without difficulty, and the marsh and 

 swamp are liis favourite hunting-gromids."* We may here 

 remark, that the whole of the predaceous birds have the power 

 of rejecting from their stomach, in the form of oblong balls, 

 the undigested portions of their food, consisting of bones, hair, 

 and feathers. 



III OWLS.— STRIGID^. 



" The Owl shriek'd at thy birth : an evil sign." — Shak.speare. 



King Hesrt VI. Part iii. Act v. scene 6. 



The nocturnal birds of prey form the third and last 



division of the present order, 

 and constitute the well- 

 marked familv of the Owls 

 {Fig. 262). in the dusk of 

 the evening they saUy forth, 

 with eyes eminently adapted 

 for the diminished light, and 

 with wings whose movement 

 is so inaudible, that, to use the 

 words of an eloquent writer, 

 " a flake of snow is not win- 

 nowed through the air more 

 softly silent." Their strange 

 appearance, grotesque atti- 

 Fig. 262.-0WL. tudes, discordant screams or 



continuous hootings, have made them be regai'ded by the 

 uneducated as bii'ds of ill omen.f The progress of know- 

 ledge dispels these idle fears, and converts a source of terror 

 into one of the countless rills of poetry and tradition. 



» St. John's "Wild Sports of the Highlands. 



t Thus among the prodigies which portended the death of Cssar: — 



-" Yesterday, the bird of night did sit, 



Even at noonday, upon the market-place. 



Hooting and shriekhig." — Julius C.^isar, Act i. scene 3. 



