132 OWLS. 



horribly as they fly along : from this screaming probably aroee 

 the common people's imaginary species of screech-owl, which 

 they superstitiously think attends the windows of dying 

 persons. The plumage of the remiges of the wings, of every 

 species of owl that I have yet examined, is remarkably soft 

 and pliant. Perhaps it may be necessary that the wings of 

 these birds should not make much resistance or rushing, that 

 they may be enabled to steal through the air unheard upon a 

 nimble and watchful quarry. 



While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to 

 mention what I was told by a gentleman of the county of 

 Wilts : As they were grubbing a vast hollow pollard ash, 

 that had been the mansion of owls for centuries, he discovered 

 at the bottom a mass of matter that at first he could not 

 account for. After some examination, he found that it was 

 a congeries of the bones of mice, (and perhaps of birds and 

 bats,) that had been heaping together for ages, being cast up 

 in pellets out of the crops of many generations of inhabitants. 

 For owls cast up the bones, fur, and feathers of what they 



gives the following animated picture of its dismal unearthly cry. He 

 says, *' It is found in almost every quarter of the United States, and 

 occurs in all parts of the fur countries. Its loud and full nocturnal cry, 

 issuing from the gloomy recesses of the forest, bear some resemblance to 

 the human voice, uttered in a hollow, sepulchral tone, and has been 

 frequently productive of alarm to the traveller, of which an instance 

 occurred within my own knowledge. A party of Scottish Highlanders, 

 in the service of the Hudson ? s Bay Company, happened, in a winter 

 journey, to encamp after nightfall in a dense clump of trees, whose dark 

 tops and lofty stems, the growth of centuries, gave a solemnity to the 

 scene that had strongly tended to excite the superstitious feelings of the 

 Highlanders. The effect was heightened by the discovery of a tomb, 

 which, with a natural taste often exhibited by the Indians, had been placed 

 in this secluded spot. Our travellers, having finished their supper, were 

 trimming their fire, preparatory to retiring to rest, when the slow and 

 dismal notes of the horned owl fell on the ear with a startling nearness. 

 None of them being acquainted with the sound, they at once concluded, 

 that so unearthly a voice must be the moaning of the spirit of the 

 departed, whose repose they supposed they had disturbed, by inadvertently 

 making a fire of the wood of which the tomb had been constructed. 

 They passed a tedious night of fear, and with the first dawn of day 

 hastily quitted the ill-omened spot." Audubon describes the cry of this owl 

 as fearful. He says, " It suddenly alights on the top of a fern-stake or a 

 dead stump, shakes its feathers, arranges them, and utters a shriek so 

 horrid that the woods around echo to its dismal sound. Now, it seems 

 as if you heard the barking of a cur-dog ; again, the notes are so rough 

 and mingled together, that they might be mistaken for the last gurglings 

 of a murdered person, striving in vain to call for assistance." ED. 



