OWLS. 145 



quest of prey. The chief peculiarities of the tribe consist 

 in the advantages afforded them by nature respecting their 

 mode of flight, and sense of seeing and hearing. It is evident 

 that, in order to make a prize of mice, and other . small 

 animals, which easily hide themselves in the ground, or under 

 grass or heath, great silence and clear-sightedness are necessary, 

 as well as a very acute sense of hearing. Accordingly, the 

 wing of an Owl is provided with feathers so remarkably soft 

 and pliant, that in striking the air they make no resistance or 

 rushing noise ; and the bird is therefore enabled to steal along 

 silently, in a manner very different from many other birds, 

 such as wild Ducks, the whistling of whose wings may, par- 

 ticularly in a still night, be heard at a great distance ; or even 

 as the Plover, whose large, soft, flapping wings, at first sight, 

 much resemble an Owl's, but which produce a well-known 

 whirring sort of sound, as they wheel round and round in airy 

 circles. 



There is something so peculiar in the solemnity and secluded 

 habits of this tribe of birds, that they have in all ages been 

 regarded with a degree of superstitious feeling. Amongst the 

 North American Indians it is customary for the priest or con- 

 juror, on their most solemn meetings, to cover his head with 

 the snowy skin of the great White Northern Owl ; and by the 

 ancients parts of its body were foolishly supposed to possess a 

 sort of magical power : for instance, they imagined that the 

 heart of the Screech-Owl, laid upon the breast of a sleeping 

 person, would cause him to divulge secrets ; or that, if carried 

 into battle, it would inspire courage and avert danger. In 

 this country, people of former days always considered it as a 

 bird foreboding mischief, and it was customary to hunt them 

 on Christmas Eve ; and even in later times superstitious 

 persons have thought that the sudden appearance of an Owl, 

 during the sickness of any member of the family, was a sure 

 forerunner of death. These conceits wiser people have long 

 since thrown aside ; but nevertheless there is something so 

 mournful and dismal in its nigh^shriek, and such a ghostly 

 sort of motion in its silent, gliding movements, when seen 



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