6 
THE HABITS OF THE BARN OWL, AND THE 
BENEFITS IT CONFERS ON MAN. 
This pretty aerial wanderer of the night often comes into my 
room; and after flitting to and fro on wing so soft and silent that 
he is scarcely heard, he takes his departure from the same 
window at which he had entered. 
I own I have a great liking for this bird ; and I have offered 
it hospitality and protection on account of its persecutions, and 
for its many services to me—I say services, as you will see in the 
sequel. I wish that any little thing I could write or say might 
cause it to stand better with the world at large than it has 
hitherto done ; but I have slender hopes on this score ; because 
old and deep-rooted prejudices are seldom overcome ; and 
when I look back into the annals of remote antiquity, I see too 
clearly that defamation has done its worst to ruin the whole family, 
in all its branches, of this poor, harmless, useful friend of mine. 
Ovid, nearly two thousand years ago, was extremely severe 
against the owl. In his Metamorphoses, he says :— 
Ecedaque fit volucris, venturi nuncia luctus. 
Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen. 
In his Fasti he openly accuses it of felony:— 
IS'octe volant, puerosque petunt nutricis egent.es. 
Lucan, too, has hit it hard :— 
Et beta; jurantur aves, bubone sinistro : 
and the Englishman who continued the Pharsalia says:—- 
Tristia mille locis Stygius dedit omina bubo. 
Horace tells us, that the old witch Canidia used part of the' 
plumage of the owl in her dealings with the devil:—• 
Plumanique nocturme strigis. 
Virgil in fine, joined in the hue and cry against this injured 
family :— 
Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo 
Stepe queri, et longas in fletum ducere voces. 
