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THE GREAT EAGLE-OWL 



Bimo MAXIM us. Gki!. 



One of the most striking- examples of tlie ])revulence 

 of vulgar prejudice over common sense and daily expe- 

 rience is afforded by the contemptuous antipathy in 

 which the Owls, the most useful to man of all the 

 birds of prey, are almost universally held by those 

 who derive the greatest advantage from tlieir peculiar 

 instincts. The singularity of their appearance, the 

 loneliness of their habitations, the moping melancholy 

 of their manners, their nocturnal habits, the still silence 

 of their motions, and the grating harshness of their 

 cries, combine to render them objects of dislike and 

 terror to the timid and superstitious, who ^ee in them 

 something of an unearthly charactei', and regard them 

 as birds of evil omen. But the connuonest observation 



