CHAPTER V. 



OWLS. 



|HE difrepute into which owls have 

 fo largely fallen with the ignorant 

 appears to be due to the Romans, 

 rather than the Greeks. In any dull 

 country, indeed, where the nights are Jong and 

 dark, the nocturnal cries and ftrange activity of 

 the owl after dufk, its glaring eyes and frequently 

 horned ears, will naturally imprefs the superfti- 

 tious ; but what may be called its literary heritage 

 of hatred and infamy comes to it from Italy. The 

 owl in Homer is fimply " a long-winged bird," 

 and appears in company with " falcons and chatter- 

 ing fea-crows, which have their bufinefs in the 

 waters" 1 in the fair wood of alder and fweet- 

 fmelling cyprefs which furrounded the pleafant 

 cave of Calypfo. No ill-fame has yet attached 

 itfelf to the bird. But reference to Pliny at once 

 mows the evil character it poffefled at Rome, and 

 gives the reafon for it. The city was indebted to 



1 " Odyssey," v. 66 (Butcher and Lang). 



