Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 69 



the Etrurians for its fcience of augury, and it had 

 pleafed the Etrurian barufpices that the owl 

 fhould be regarded as a bird of ill-omen. So 

 Pliny fays: "The great horned owl is of mourn- 

 ful import, and more to be dreaded than all other 

 birds in aufpices connected with the ftate. It in- 

 habits wafte places, and thofe not merely deferts, 

 but dreadful and inacceffible localities ; being a 

 prodigy of night, making its voice heard in no 

 manner of fong, but rather in groaning. So when- 

 ever feen in cities or in daylight it is a direful 

 portent. Perchance it is not fo much fraught with 

 horror when feen fitting on private houfes. It 

 never flies where it lifts, but is always borne along 

 in a flanting direction. Having once entered the 

 capitol, the city was purified on account of it in 

 the fame year. There is an unlucky and incen- 

 diary bird, owing to which I find in the ' Annals ' 

 that the city was repeatedly purified, as when 

 Caffius and Marius were confuls, in which year 

 alfo it was cleanfed, as a horned owl had been 

 feen. What this bird is I cannot find out, nor 

 does tradition tell. Some fay that any bird is an 

 incendiary, if it appears bearing a coal from the 

 altars. Others call it a fpinfurnix" (i.e., an 

 abominable bird), " but neither can I find anyone 

 to tell me what kind of bird this is. Another 

 confeflion of general ignorance is that it was called 

 by the ancients ' a bird which forbade things to 

 be done.' Nigidius terms it a thievim bird, be- 

 caufe it breaks the eggs of eagles. There are, 

 befides, feveral kinds, treated of in the Etrurian 



