170 AX ANCIENT SUPERSTITION. 



and weird character which occur in our English poets, or 

 it would be easy to collect an interesting anthology. 

 Tlius Shakespeare says : — 



" It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, 

 That gives the stern'st good-night." 



And an older than Shakespeare, — Chaucer, the IMorning 

 Star of English Poetry, — 



" The owl croaked all night in the neighb'ring wood, 

 The prophet he of woe and of mischance." 



The superstition, however, has descended to us from the 

 elder world ; for Yirgil informs his readers that, on the 

 death of Dido, the heart-broken Queen of Carthage, — 



" With a boding note 

 The solitary screech owl strained her throat, 

 And in a chimney's top or turret's height. 

 With songs obscure disturbed the stilly night." 



There are two European species of Goatsuckers, as 

 these nocturnal insectivorous birds are strangely called ; 

 but at the approach of winter they assemble in large 

 flocks, and migrate to Africa. In the course of their 

 long and hazardous flight many perish; some through 

 exhaustion, others through the attacks of birds of prey. 

 Southward, too, our swift-winged swallows take their 

 flight, when the cold airs of October begin to rifle the 

 beauty of our groves; returning, with wonderful regu- 

 larity, as the welcome harbingers of spring. Swifts, 

 martins, and swallows, all perform this great annual 

 journey at the bidding of an instinct which never fails. 

 In like manner, the kingflshers visit Western Europe only 



