134 
GREAT HORNED-OWL. 
rison. He has other nocturnal solos, no less melodious, one of 
which very strikingly resembles the half-suppressed screams of 
a person suffocating, or throttled, and cannot fail of being ex- 
ceedingly entertaining to a lonely benighted traveller, in the 
midst of an Indian wilderness. 
This species inhabits the country round Hudson’s Bay; and, 
according to Pennant, who considers it a mere variety of the 
Eagle Owl, {Strix bubo) of Europe, is found in Kamtschatka; 
extends even to the arctic regions, where it is often found white; 
and occurs as low as Astrakan. It has also been seen white in 
the United States; but this has doubtless been owing to disease 
or natural defect, and not to climate. It preys on young rab- 
bits, squirrels, rats, mice. Partridges, and small birds of various 
kinds. It has been often known to prowl about the farm-house, 
and carry off chickens from the roost. A very large one, wing- 
broken while on a foraging excursion of this kind, was kept 
about a house for several days, and at length disappeared, no 
one knew how. Almost every day after this, hens and chic- 
kens also disappeared, one by one, in an unaccountable man- 
ner, till in eight or ten days very few were left remaining. 
The fox, the minx and weasel, were alternately the reputed 
authors of this mischief, until one morning, an old lady, rising 
before day to bake, in passing towards the oven, surprized her 
late prisoner the Owl, regaling himself on the body of a newly 
killed hen. The thief instantly made for his hole under the 
house, whence the enraged matron soon dislodged him with 
the brush-handle, and without mercy despatched him. In this 
snug retreat were found the greater part of the feathers, and 
many large fragments, of her whole family of chickens. 
There is something in the character of the Owl so recluse, 
solitary and mysterious, something so discordant in the tones 
of its voice, heard only amid the silence and gloom of night, 
and in the most lonely and sequestered situations, as to have 
strongly impressed the minds of mankind in general with sen- 
sations of awe, and abhorrence of the whole tribe. The poets 
have indulged freely in this general prejudice; and in their de- 
