250 OF METEOROLOGICAL c HAP. 10. 



there is scarcely a poet, ancient or modern, 

 who does not speak of the Owl in this point of 

 view.* 



The bird called by the Greeks fiuag., seems to 

 be the same as the Roman bubo, and was also 

 reckoned an ominous and ill fated bird.f Some 

 authors, too, have considered the %ciX%ig as the 

 Owl : Homer identifies this bird with the 

 ^vog,\ also supposed by some commentators 



* The superstitious opinion that the Owl is the harbinger 

 of death, still prevails among the ignorant of modern Europe. 

 In England, no Village Ghost, or Fairy Dance, no pizgy 

 maze, or haunted house, is more common than a death foretold 

 by the Owl. 



The remarkable appearance of the upright shadows in some 

 foggy moonlight nights, as well as some curious atmospheric 

 refractions, have probably cooperated with ocular spectra, 

 in giving birth to the monstrous relations of nocturnal spec- 

 tra and apparitions, which so mightly terrify the country 

 peasants. 



t Jam si historicos consulas apud Dionem in morte Augusti, 

 cum decrevit senatus, ut publice supplicaretur propter ejus 

 valetudinem, fjtz crvvtSfiov xsjcAsiirasvov svpsQy, tixi fiva.; ntzg 

 dvrs Ky,-iftt,v$ eQv%e. Et in morte Commodi B.2f 0.1: aura 

 (KStTnrctMis) e pve, &c. 



Bochart. Hierozoicon, lib. ii. c. 22. 

 See also Arist. Hist. An. lib. viii. c. 3. 



a RiXAtjcTH8(n 9e0i avdps; -rs KUplvSw, Honn-r. 



