140 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
therefore, has been long regarded as a funereal spectre, or a 
messenger of death, and its unwelcome and familiar visits 
around the abode of the sick are thought to be little better 
than a summons to the regions of mortality, among which it 
delights to dwell. But so unreasonable is superstition that 
bad and good are sometimes derived from the same omen. 
Thus the Mongul Tartars pay divine honors to this mis- 
represented bird, attributing the preservation of the foun- 
der of their empire, Gengis Khan, to one of its acciden- 
tal visits to the bush under which he lay hid, his pursuers 
naturally supposing, that no person could be concealed 
where this friend of solitude would venture to perch. 
The cry of this nocturnal bird, discordant as it some- 
times appears, is still in harmony with the scenes and cir- 
cumstances it accompanies, and we may say with Cowper, 
u The jay, the pie, and e’en the boding owl, 
That hails the rising moon, have charms forme : 
Sounds inharmonious in themselves and harsh, 
Yet, heard in scenes where peace for ever reigns, 
And only these, please highly for their sake.” 
Nor are we to suppose that the cries of the Owl are 
only plaints and sounds of distress and inquietude. 
They are not left by nature as spectacles of derision, but 
have their calls of complaisance, of recognition, and at- 
tachment, which, though discordant to human ears, are 
yet only ordinary expressions of agreement and necessity. 
Superstition laid aside, the owl renders essential 
service to the farmer by destroying mice, rats, and shrews, 
which infest houses and barns ; it also catches bats and 
beetles. They likewise clear churches of such vermin, 
and now and then, pressed by hunger, probably, they have 
been known to sip, or rather eat, the oil from the lamps 
when congealed by cold. A still more extraordinary appe- 
tite, attributed to the owl, is that of catching fish, on 
