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BIRD-LIFE. 
form feathering of the head and regal piercing eye, 
which serves to stand guard over the motionless body: 
these ever bring before us the different attributes 
attached to the symbol. The Eagle Owl, ruler of the 
night,—as the Eagle is of the day,—has, from time 
immemorial, been connected with weird stories of the 
wild huntsman; and though we have stripped the Owl 
of its horrors, we still look upon it as a fit emblem 
of all that is underhand, cowardly, and ignorant; for, 
like the spirit of evil, it glides on the silent night, 
under cover of the darkness, and seizes and strangles in 
their sleep the birds of the light who jeer it by day. 
We hate the Eagle Owl as much as we can hate any 
bird; whilst when we look at its cousin, the Athenian 
Owl, we can perfectly understand how the Greeks looked 
upon the latter as the emblem of reflection, and the 
favourite bird of Minerva. 
In this manner the poetry of our ancestors has, in 
a way, spiritualised many other birds, and none more 
so, or with more genuine feeling, than the Swan. The 
beauty of its form and purity of its colour has made it the 
favourite of all ages and all nations, a position, indeed, 
which it holds even to the present day. According to the 
Icelanders the note of the Swan ('Gygnus muMcus ) resembles 
the sound of a flute or violin, though, in truth, it is much 
more like the harsh cry of the Goose : the note of the 
allied species is but rarely heard, hence it is often called 
the Mute Swan, though the poet accords musical powers 
even to this species. As the tale goes, the tongue of the 
Mute Swan is loosed at its last dying hour: the parting 
plaint passes from the stiffening corpse, and borne by the 
evening breeze mingles with the ripple of the waves upon 
the shore, and forms a song. The attributes of the Swan 
