154 THE EAGLE AND THE OWL. 
The Eagle heard: and as he flew, 
Some little monsters met his view, 
Graceless, deform’d, whose horrid throats 
Pour’d forth a tide of screeching notes : 
Not these the children of my friend, 
Quoth he ; on this I may depend. 
With that he took them for a meal, 
Dame Owl, in her maternal zeal, 
Having much flatter’d in her song, 
And painted all their portraits wrong. 
From hence let doting parents know 
What ills from partial blindness flow, 
Nor deem those awkward brats refined, 
Which are but owlets in their kind. 
Cx 
