436 GREAT HORNED OWL. 
solitudes of deep swamps, covered with a growth of gigantic timber ; 
and here, as soon as evening draws on, and mankind retire to rest, he 
sends forth such sounds as seem scarcely to belong to this world, 
startling the solitary pilgrim as he slumbers by his forest fire, 
Making night hideous. 
Along ‘he mountainous shores of the Oh’o, and amidst the deep 
forests of Indiana, alone, and reposing in the woods, this ghostly watch- 
man has frequently warned me of the approach of morning, and 
Our travellers, baving finished their supper, were trimming their fire preparatory to 
retiring to rest, when the slow and dismal notes of the Horned Ow! fell on the ear 
with a startling nearness. None of them being acquainted with the sound, =, at 
once concluded, that so unearthly a voice must be the moaning of the spirit of the 
departed, whose repose they supposed they had disturbed, by inadvertently makin, 
a fire of some of the wood of which his tomb had been constructed. They passe: 
a tedious night of fear, and, with the first dawn of day, hastily quitted the ill-omened 
spot.” 7 
a India there is a large Owl, known by the native name of Googoo, or Ooloo, 
which, according to some interesting notices, accompanying a large box of birds 
sent to Mr. Selby from the vicinity of Hydrabad, is held as an object of both fear 
and veneration. ‘If an Ooloo should alight on the house of a Hindoe, he would 
leave it immediately, take the thatch off, and put fresh on. The eyes and brain are 
considered an infallible cure for fits in children, and both are often given to women 
m labor. The flesh, bones, &c., boiled down to a jelly, are used to cure spasms or 
theumatism. Some of the fat, given to a child newly born, averts misfortune from 
him for life.” Independent of these, says our correspondent, “there are innu- 
merable superstitions regarding this bird, and a native will always kill one when he 
has an opportunity.” 
We must mention here a very beautiful species, which is certainly first accurately 
described in the second volume of the Northern Zoology, though Wilson appears to 
have had'some.information regarding a large white Owl; and Dr. Richardson is of 
opinion, that the Strix Scandiaca of Linnzeus, if not actually the species, at least 
resembles it. It is characterized and figured by the northern travellers under the 
name of Bubo arctica, Arctic, or White-horned Ow] ; and we add the greater part 
of their description. 
“This very beautiful Owl appears to be rare, only one specimen having been 
seen by the members of the expedition. It was observed flying at mid-day, in the 
immediate vicinity of Carlton House, and was brought down with an arrow by an 
Indian boy. I obtained no information respecting its habits. . ‘ 
“The facial disk is very imperfect; the ears, small, and without an operculum, 
as in Strix Virginiana ; the ear-feathers, ample; but the disk even smaller than 
in the last-mentioned bird, and the tarsi somewhat longer. The toes are similarl 
eonnected. The tail is of moderate length, and considerably rounded. The bill 
is strong and rather short. 
“ Description.—Color of the bill and claws, bluish black. Irides, yellow. 
The face is white, Sounded posteriorly by blackish brown, succeeded by white, 
which two latter colors are continued in a mixed band across the throat. Egrets, 
colored at the base, like the adjoining plumage; the longer feathers tipped with 
blackish brown, their inner webs, white, varied with wood eae The wile dor- 
sal aspect is marked with undulated lines, or fine bars, of umber brown, alternatin 
with white ; the markings bearing some resemblance to those of the Virginian Owl 
but being much more lively and handsome. On the greater wing-coverts, on the 
inner halt of the seapularies, and also partially on the neck and lesser wing-coverts, 
the white is faged, or replaced by pale wood brown. The primaries and second- 
aries are wood brown, with a considerable portion of white along the margins of 
their inner webs. They are crossed by from five to six distant umber brown bars 
on both webs, the intervening spaces being finely speckled with the same. Near the 
tips of the primaries, the fine sprinkling of the de color nearly obscures the wood 
brown. On the tétiaries, the wood prown is mostly replaced by white. The tail- 
feathers are white deeply tinged on their inner webs by wood brown, and crossed 
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