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A HISTORY OF 



they all have an hideous note; which, while 

 pursuing their prey, is seldom heard ; but may 

 be considered rather as a call to courtship. 

 There is something always terrifying in this 

 call, which is often heard in the silence of 

 midnight, and breaks the general pause with a 

 horrid variation. It is different in all ; but in 

 each it is alarming and disagreeable. Father 

 Kircher, who has set the voices of birds to 

 music, has given all the tones of the owl note, 

 which make a most tremendous melody. 

 Indeed, the prejudices of mankind are united 

 with their sensations to make the cry of the 

 owl disagreeable. The screech-owl's voice 

 was always considered among the people as a 

 presage of- some sad calamity that was soon to 

 ensue. 



They seldom, however, are heard while 

 they are preying ; that important pursuit is 

 always attended with silence, as it is by no 

 means their intention to disturb or forewarn 

 those little animals they wish to surprise. 

 When their pursuit has been successful, they 

 soon return to their solitude, or to their young, 

 if that be the season. If, however, they find 

 but little game, they continue their quest still 

 longer; and it sometimes happens that, obey- 

 ing the dictates of appetite rather than of pru- 

 dence, they pursue so long that broad day 

 breaks in upon them, and leaves them dazzled, 

 bewildered, and at a distance from home. 



In this distress they are obliged to take shel- 

 ter in the first tree or hedge that offers, there 

 to continue concealed all day, till the returning 

 darkness once more supplies them with a bet- 

 ter plan of the country. But it too often hap- 

 pens that, with all their precautions to conceal 

 themselves, they are spied out by the other 

 birds of the place, and are sure to receive no 

 mercy. The blackbird, the thrush, the jay, 

 the bunting, and the red-breast, all come in 

 file, and employ their little arts of insult and 

 abuse. The smallest, the feeblest, and the 

 most contemptible of this unfortunate bird's 

 eremies, are then the foremost to injure and 

 torment him. They increase their cries and 

 turbulence round him, flap him with their 

 wings, and are ready to show their courage to 

 be great, as they are sensible that their danger 

 is but small. The unfortunate owl, not know- 

 ing where to attack or where to fly, patiently 

 sits and suffers all their insults. Astonished 

 and dizzy, he only replies to their mockeries 



by awkward and ridiculous gestures, by turn- 

 ing his head and rolling his eyes with an air of 

 stupidity. It is enough that an owl appears 

 by day, to set the whole grove into a kind of 

 uproar. Either the aversion all the small 

 birds have to this animal, or the consciousness 

 of their own security, makes them pursue him 

 without ceasing, while they encourage each 

 other by their mutual cries to lend assistance 

 in this laudable undertaking. 



It sometimes happens, however, that the 

 little birds pursue their insults with the same 

 imprudent zeal with which the owl himself 

 had pursued his depredations. They hunt 

 him the whole day until evening returns ; 

 which restoring him his faculties of sight once 

 more, he makes the foremost of his pursuers 

 pay dear for their former sport. Nor is man 

 always an unconcerned spectator here. The 

 bird-catchers have got an art of counterfeiting 

 the cry of the owl exactly ; and having before 

 lined the branches of a hedge, they sit unseen, 

 and give the call. At this, all the little birds 

 flock to the place where they expect to find 

 their well-known enemy ; but is^tead of find- 

 ing their stupid antagonist, they are stuck fast 

 to the hedge themselves. This sport must be 

 put in practice an hour before night-fall, in 

 order to be successful ; for if it is put off till 

 later, those birds which but a few minutes 

 sooner came to provoke their enemy, will then 

 fly from hirn with as much terror as they just 

 before showed insolence. 



It is not unpleasant to see one stupid bird 

 made, in some sort, a decoy to deceive another. 

 The great horned owl is sometimes made use 

 of for this purpose to lure the kite, when fal- 

 coners desire to catch him for the purposes of 

 training the falcon. Upon this occasion they 

 clap the tail of a fox to the great owl, to render 

 his figure extraordinary; in which trim he sails 

 slowly along, flying low, which is his usual 

 manner. The kite, either curious to observe 

 this odd kind of animal, or perhaps inquisitive 

 to see whether it may not be proper for food, 

 flies after, and comes nearer and nearer. In 

 this manner he continues to hover, and some- 

 times to descend, till the falconer setting a 

 strong-winged hawk against him, seizes him 

 for the purpose of training his young ones at 

 home. 



The usual place where the great horned owl 

 breeds is in the cavern of a rock, the hollow of 



