Birds by the Wayside 169 



and swan; but to Pallas-Athena, the goddess of wisdom,, the 

 owl alone among birds, was sacred. Her sculptured forms 

 represent her frequently with the owl. Modern Greece is 

 strong on the emblematic owl. In our dining-room in the 

 Hotel D'Angleterre were counted twenty life-sized figures of 

 the owl on the gilt cornice over mirrors and windows, and 

 adjoining rooms were almost as richly adorned. Both mold- 

 ings and owls were of an excellent quality of gold-gilt, so 

 said one of our party whose business fitted him to judge. The 

 school-boys seen in Greece wore a dark blue uniform.. On 

 the caps of those seen in Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and Corfu 

 was a gilt ornament, having an owl in its center. It looked 

 like an enlarged copy of the owl that used to decorate the 

 backs of our classical text-books. Certain Greek coins, as for 

 example the ten lepta pieces, are embellished with an owl. 

 And it is interesting to learn from Aristophanes that in his 

 day silver coins bore similar designs, of which he scoffingly 

 wrote: "For in the first place, what every judge especially 

 desires, Lauriotic owls shall never fail you, but shall dwell 

 within and make their nests in your purses, and hatch small 

 change." Finally, if at any time Greece should have failed 

 to furnish things of interest in the owl line, we still had, as 

 members of our party, Mr. and Mrs. Uhl of San Francisco. 

 The bird, sacred to Pallas-Athena, is said to have been the 

 Little Owl (Athene noctua)'. I had no opportunity to hear 

 or see this species, but was told by "the warrior," recently 

 returned from Balkan battle-fields, that it was common on his 

 native island of Syra, and another said the same of his native 

 Cephalonia, while several reported that its notes were fre- 

 quently heard in the outskirts of Athens. If not actually pro- 

 tected this owl appears not to have been persecuted by a. race, 

 that from remote antiquity has cared naught for song-birds — 

 except to eat them. The status of the Little Owl should be 

 kept in mind, when contemplating the scarcity of birds in 

 Greece, and, if possible, a lesson should be learned from it 

 relative to our treatment of the Screech Owl. In 1843 the 

 Little Owl was introduced into England, and other importa- 



