SHADOWY BIRDS OF THE NIGHT* 



By Alexander Wetmore 



Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution 



THE evening air of late February in 

 the Everglades of southern Florida is 

 soft and mild. Delicate scents from 

 unseen blossoms come with the breeze, to- 

 gether with the voices of myriad frogs in 

 incessant but attractive chorus from the 

 marshes. Suddenly, from the moss-fes- 

 tooned live oaks in this peaceful back- 

 ground, comes an outburst of demoniacal 

 laughter, guttural in sound and startling 

 in its abruptness, causing in me pleasant 

 tremors of excitement. 



Playing the beam of light from an electric 

 torch through the branches, I discover pres- 

 ently two glowing spots of ruby red, reflec- 

 tions from a pair of eyes. As my own eyes 

 adjust themselves to the feeble illumination, 

 I can distinguish dimly the shadowy form 

 of a great barred owl. The hubbub stops 

 immediately, for the bird is puzzled by the 

 spot of light; but as I continue along the 

 trail the owl, now behind me, utters a loud, 

 prolonged whoo-oo-oo-aw that resounds 

 eerily among the trees. Until daybreak I 

 hear at intervals the wild ululation of its 

 calls filling the darkened woodland. 



The voices of owls are more familiar than 

 their persons, as most of them are active 

 principally at night, and without special 

 search the birds themselves are difficult to 

 see. Their presence, unseen but constantly 

 evident, has caused imagination to play 

 about them until in practically every country 

 in the world there have grown up fables and 

 superstitions regarding owls. 



FABLED BIRDS OF WISDOM AND OF DOOM 



The little owl of Europe, about as large 

 as the American screech owl but without the 

 ear tufts of that species, has long been an 

 emblem of wisdom, and in early years was 

 accepted as a special ward of Pallas Athena 

 of the Greeks. Romans, to whom this god- 

 dess became Minerva, did not retain this 

 reverence for the bird, considering it of evil 

 omen and a messenger of bad news. Death 

 was foretold by owls alighting on the house- 

 tops, and their calls near by at night aroused 

 fear and foreboding. 



* This is the tenth article, illustrated by paintings 

 by Maj. Allan Brooks, in the important Geo- 

 graphic series describing the bird families of the 

 United States and Canada. The eleventh article, 

 with paintings in color by Major Brooks, will 

 appear in an early number. 



The vogue of the owl as an emblem of 

 wisdom is not due to any special intelligence 

 of the bird, but to the conformation of the 

 head, with the two eyes so placed that they 

 look directly ahead like those of man. 



As the companion of night-flying witches, 

 or as one of the ingredients in the brews con- 

 cocted by these trouble-makers, the owl de- 

 veloped a black and unsavory reputation, 

 attested by many references to its evil omen 

 in Shakespeare and other writers. 



Among American Indians, owls, though 

 feared at times, were in better repute and 

 were the basis of various lively legends. 

 Zuiii tales include stories of one called "gray 

 owl" that lived in a house as a man does. 

 The Pima Indians held that at death the 

 human spirit passed into the body of an owl 

 and, to assist in this transmigration, they 

 gave owl feathers, kept for the purpose in a 

 special box, to a dying person. 



ELVES AND GIANTS AMONG OWLS 



Among the Plains Indians, the Arikara in- 

 cluded an owl group as one of their eight 

 mystic societies, and in the sacred rites of 

 this body they used the stuffed skin of an 

 owl with disks of cunningly fitted buffalo 

 horn for eyes. This emblem was displayed 

 during their ceremonies to represent night, 

 the eyes being symbolic of the morning star. 



Owls are found throughout the world from 

 the Arctic regions through the continents 

 and to remote islands in the sea. More than 

 three hundred kinds are known, ranging in 

 size from the tiny elf owls, no larger than 

 sparrows, to the powerful horned owls and 

 eagle owls, which are two feet or more in 

 length. 



Scientifically, all owls are included in one 

 order, the Strigiformes, in which two families 

 are recognized, one for the barn owls (Ty- 

 tonidae) and the other (Strigidae) for all 

 other species. 



Regardless of their size, owls are instantly 

 identified by their broad faces with promi- 

 nent disks of feathers about the eyes, cou- 

 pled with sharp, curved beaks and claws, 

 and long, fluffy feathers. Their nearest rela- 

 tives are the whippoorwills, nighthawks, and 

 goatsuckers.* 



* See "Seeking the Smallest Feathered Crea- 

 tures," by Alexander Wetmore, in the National 

 Geographic Magazine for July, 1932. 



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