THE GREAT HORNED OWL. 91 



Attachment to the young. 



It inhabits the most inaccessible rocks and de- 

 sert places, and is found in most parts of Europe, 

 Asia, and America; though but rarely seen in 

 Great Britain. It sees better during the day 

 than almost any other variety, and has frequently 

 been observed preying upon birds and small qua- 

 drupeds in broad day-light. 



Owls are superstitiously considered by the 

 people of most countries as birds of ill omen, and 

 the messengers of woe ; the Athenians, however, 

 among the ancients, seem to have been free from 

 this popular prejudice, and the present species, 

 which is very common in many parts of Greece, 

 was even considered as a favourite bird of Mi- 

 nerva; and the proverb, Noctuas Athenas mittere, 

 " to send owls to Athens," was exactly equiva- 

 lent to the one used by us, (< to send coals to 

 Newcastle." 



Of the attachment of these birds to their 

 young, a pleasing instance is recorded by M. 

 Cronstedt, in the Transactions of the Philoso- 

 phical Society of Stockholm : This gentleman 

 resided several years on a farm in Sudermania, 

 "near a steep mountain, on the summit of which 

 two horned owls had their nest. One day in the 

 month of July, a young one, having quitted the 

 nest, was seized by some of his servants. This 

 bird, after it was caught, was shut up in a large 

 hen-coop; and the next morning M. Cronstedt 

 found a young partridge lying dead before the 

 M 2 



