8 THE BARN OWL* 



Lucan, too, has hit it hard : 



" Et laeta? jurantur aves, bubone sinistro :" 



and the Englishman who continued the Pharsalia 

 says 



" Tristia mille locis Stygius dedit omina bubo." 



Horace tells us, that the old witch Canidia used 

 part of the plumage of the owl in her dealings with 

 the devil : 



" Plumamque nocturnae strigis." 



Virgil, in fine, joined in the hue and cry against 

 this injured family : 



" Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo 

 Ssepe queri, et longas in fletum ducere voces." 



In our own times we find that the village maid 

 cannot return home from seeing her dying swain, 

 without a doleful salutation from the owl : 



" Thus homeward as she hopeless went, 



The churchyard path along, 

 The blast grew cold, the dark owl scream'd 

 Her lover's funeral song." 



Amongst the numberless verses which might be 

 quoted against the family of the owl, I think I only 

 know of one little ode which expresses any pity for it. 

 Our nursery maid used to sing it to the tune of the 

 Storm, " Cease rude Boreas, blust'ring railer." I 

 remember the first two stanzas of it : 



" Once I was a monarch's daughter, 



And sat on a lady's knee ; 

 But am now a nightly rover, 

 Banish'd to the ivy tree. 



