116 ON THE INSTINCTS OF BIRDS. 
shocked; and we deeply deplore the prevalence of 
errors which the zealous promulgation of more cor- 
rect ideas and liberal sentiments can alone effectually 
remedy. 
That useful bird the White Owl, which, on ac- 
count of the great number of mice it destroys, 
ought to be carefully protected by the farmer, is fre- 
quently looked upon with terror as a forerunner of 
death, which it is supposed to announce by its loud 
dissonant screams ; and a small Coleopterous insect, 
the Anobium tessellatum of entomologists, has ob- 
tained the appellation of death-watch, from a fancied 
connexion between the ticking sound it produces and 
that awful event. The Raven and Magpie are ima- 
gined, by persons of weak intellects and timid dispo- 
sitions, to prognosticate evil; and this notion has 
been extended and perpetuated by the allusions made 
to it in numerous legendary tales, and in the writings 
of our poets. To. take the life of the Swallow or 
House-Martin, or to disturb their nests, is regarded 
as an unlucky event, portending disaster to the un- 
feeling aggressor ; and the Redbreast and Wren owe 
much of their security to popular prepossessions 
equally without any rational foundation. Many 
birds which subsist almost entirely on insects (as 
the Cuckoo, Redstart, and Spotted Flycatcher) are 
shot by ignorant gardeners and nurserymen, indis- 
criminately with those species which feed principally 
on the seeds of plants and other vegetable produc- 
