a56 SHAKESPEARE'’S [owL. 
Owl. 
Tus Owl is a wild bird charged with feathers, but she 
is always with-holden with sloth, and is feeble to fly, and 
dwelleth by graves by day and by night, and in chincs. 
And diviners tell that they betoken ewil; for if the Owl 
be seen in a city, it signifieth destruction and waste. The 
chough fighteth with the Owl, and taketh the Owl’s eggs, 
and eateth them by day, and the Owl eateth the chough’s 
eggs by night. The crying of the Owl by night tokeneth 
death. The Owl is fed with dirt, and with other unclean 
things. Bartholomew (Berthelet), bk. xii. § 5. 
Ir the heart of an Owl be laid on the left side of a 
sleeping woman, she will tell all that she hath done. The 
feet of Owls burnt with the herb plantain help against 
serpents. They put the ashes of Owls’ eyes on madmen. 
Hortus Sanitatis, bk. iii. § 16. 
Tue Howlet, Screech-owl, etc., when they be hatched 
come forth of their shells with their tail first; and by 
reason of their heads so heavy, the eggs are turned with 
the wrong end downward. Holland’s Pliny, bk. x. ch. xvi. 
Ir is a pretty sight to see the wit and dexterity of these 
Howlets, when they fight with other birds; for when they 
are overlaid and beset with a multitude of them, they lie 
upon their backs and with their feet make shift to resist 
them. The falcon by a secret instinct and society of nature, 
seeing the poor Howlet thus distressed, cometh to succour 
and taketh equal part with him, and so endeth the fray. 
Howlets for, sixty days in winter keep close and remain in 
covert, and they change their voice into nine tunes. 
Ibid., ch. xvii. 
For the sting of bees, wasps and hornets,—for the biting 
also of those horse-leeches called blood-suckers, the Howlet 
is counted a sovereign remedy, by a certain antipathy in 
nature. Ibid., bk. xxix. ch. iv. 
Ir any man put the heart of an Owl under his armpit, 
no dog will bark at him, but will keep silence ; and if the 
