254 OF METEOROLOGICAL CHAP, la 



It may be proper to examine a few causes in 

 point for the sake of illustration. Among all 

 the birds of evil report among the ancients, the 

 Owl stands foremost, as being the most generally 

 regarded as the harbinger of mischief and of 

 death. Pliny, the natural historian, represents 

 the large eared or horned Owl, strix bubo, as 

 a funereal bird, a monster of the night, the 

 abomination of human kind.* And Virgil 

 describes its death howl from the top of the 

 temple by night; a circumstance introduced 

 here by the poet, as a precursor of the death of 



* Bubo funebris et maxime abominatus publicis praecipue 

 auspiciis, deserta incolit, nee tantum desolata sed dira etiam 

 et inaccessa, noctis monstrum, nee cantu aliquo vocalis, sed 

 gemitu. Itaque in urbibus aut omnino in luce visus dirum 

 ostentum est. 



Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. x. c. 12. 



Quis quaeso ovum bubonis videre possit, cum tarn avem 

 ipsam vidisse prodigium sit. Plin. 



in an endeavour to terrify the infaustae aves, and warn them 

 not to obtrude themselves upon the family ; the superstitious 

 often imagining that, by avoiding the omen, they could avert 

 the impending mischief. Quid, istas nocturnas aves, cum 

 penetfaverint larem solicits praehensas foribus videmus adjigi, 

 nisi quod infaustis rolatibus familiac minantur cxitinm, suis 

 luat cruciatibii.i. 



Apul Met. lib. iii. 



