258 
GREAT HORNED OWL. 
the present volume are drawn ; their real magnitude rendering 
this unavoidable. 
This noted and formidable Owl is found in almost every 
at that season makes the cry very distinctly heard to a considerable distance. 
This bird also shews a great antipathy to dogs, and will perceive one at a 
considerable distance, nor is it possible to distract his attention so long as the 
animal remains in sight. When first perceived, the feathers are raised, and the 
wings lowered, as when feeding, and the head moved round, following the 
object while in sight ; if food is thrown, it will be struck with the foot, and 
held, but no farther attention paid to it. 
The Virginian Owl seems to be very extensively distributed over America, 
is tolerably common over every part of the continent, and Mr Swainson has 
seen specimens from the table-land of Mexico. The southern specimens pre- 
sent only a brighter colouring in the rufous parts of the plumage. 
According to all authorities, Owls have been regarded as objects of super- 
stition ; and this has sometimes been taken advantage of by the well informed, 
for purposes far from what ought to be the duty of a better education to inculcate. 
None are more accessible to such superstitions than the primitive natives of 
Ireland, and the north of Scotland. Dr Richardson thus relates an instance, 
which came to his own knowledge, of the consequences arising from a visit of 
this nocturnal wanderer. 
“ A party of Scottish Highlanders, in the service of the Hudson’s Bay 
Company, happened, in a winter journey, to encamp after nightfall in a dense 
clump of trees, whose dark tops and lofty stems, the growth of more than one 
century, gave a solemnity to the scene that strongly tended to excite the 
superstitious feelings of the Highlanders. The effect was heightened by the 
discovery of a tomb, which, with a natural taste often exhibited by the Indians, 
had been placed in this secluded spot. Our travellers having finished their 
supper, were trimming their fire preparatory to retiring to rest, when the slow 
and dismal notes of the Horned Owl fell on the ear with a startling nearness. 
None of them being acquainted with the sound, they 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 making a fire of 
some of the wood of which his tomb had been constructed. They passed a 
tedious night of fear, and, with the first dawn of day, hastily quitted the ill 
omened spot.” 
In 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 Hindoo, 
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 
