'254 The Animal-Lore of ShaJcspeare’s Time . 
the lover bewails, in his “ deep hurt phant’sie,” that there 
was— 
“ Not a voice or sound to ring her hell. 
But of that dismal pair, the scritching owl 
And buzzing hornet! hark! hark! hark! the foul 
Bird ! how she flutters with her wicker wings! 
Peace! you shall hear her scritch.” 
(Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd, i. 1.) 
The expression “wicker wings” probably refers to the 
straw colour of the owl’s feathers. Daniel alludes to the 
rough reception which the little birds accord to their 
enemy if he makes his appearance in the daytime:—- 
“ Look how the day-hater, Minerva’s bird, 
Whilst privileg’d with darkness and the night, 
Doth live secure t’ himself of others fear’d: 
If but by chance discover’d in the light, 
How doth each little fowl, with envy stirr’d, 
Call him to justice, urge him with despite; 
Summon the feathered flocks of all the wood, 
To come and scorn the tyrant of their blood.” 
{Hist, of the Civil Wars , book ii.) 
USTo distinction appears to have been made between the 
different varieties of owls. However, a passage bearing 
upon this point occurs in Dr. Giles Fletcher’s account of 
Eussia. He reports that in that country they have “ an 
owle of very great bignesse, more ugly even then the 
owles of this countrey, with a broad face, and eares much 
like unto a man ” ( Purehas , vol. iii. p. 417). 
