166 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
from spirit-land, and prophet of death and disaster; 
a little sister or some other relation of the devil; 
and finally the devil himself; also, as in Samoa, 
a god incarnate. Its voice, as well as its strange 
appearance, had doubtless much to do with the 
owl’s supernatural reputation. The owl is first, 
but only one, of a legion of feathered demons, 
ghosts, witches, and other unearthly beings, usually 
nocturnal birds with cries and notes that resemble 
the human voice expressing physical agony, 
incurable grief, despair and frenzy, always with 
something aerial and ventriloquial in it, heighten- 
ing its mysterious and terrible character; and the 
birds that emit these sounds are of many families 
—night-jars, herons, rails, curlews, grebes, loons, 
and others. 
But great as the owl is among birds that have 
been regarded as supernatural, or in league with 
the unseen powers, it has never risen to the height 
of the serpent in this respect: it had only its 
strange appearance, silent flight, and weird voice; 
the serpent had many and more impressive qualities. 
First and foremost is the strength and lastingness 
of the impression produced by its strangeness, and 
its beautiful, infinitely varied, and, to the un- 
scientific mind, causeless motions; its spectre-like 
silence and subtlety; its infinite patience and 
watchfulness, and its power to continue with raised 
head and neck rigid as if frozen to stone for a long 
period; and its wonderful quietude when lying 
day after day in sun or shade on the same spot, as 
