The Blossoming Rod

aven should take on herself the likeness of any small or vulgar bird, but rather that she should be embodied in one whose reign by night was e

g it as the favourite of Minerva, and the image of wisdom. The Romans viewed the owl with detestation and dread. By them it was held sacred to Proserpine: its appearance

E IN M

the owl appears to have been "great medicine." Ovid tells us that

ames ipsis cum

old witch Canidia made use of th

e nocturn

OF IL

lt that the introduction of an owl in a dreadful scene of a tragedy would help to make the subject come home more forcibly to the people, who had, from early times, associated its presence with melancholy, misfortune, and d

It was the owl

which gives the st

, Act i

rushes in immediately

deed. Didst thou

repl

the owl

late

d clamour'd the

, Act i

rded by the superstitious, may be attributed in

k night, the sil

··

reech-owls cry a

Part II. A

earance of an owl by day is by s

owl b

is mocked and

art III. Ac

iek, where mounting

I. Act ii

TS MISUN

id to forbode ill-luck to the infant. Ki

'd at thy birth

art III. Ac

resence was supposed to predict a d

h-owl, scre

etch, that

rance of

ght's Dream,

ill-news showered thick upon him, he

s! nothing but

II. Act i

. Even amongst the Land Dayaks of Borneo, the owl is considered a bird of ill omen. Mr. Spenser St.

s last night's resting place. In some tribes, if a deer cry near a party who are setting out on a journey, they will return. When going out at night to the jungle, if the scream of a hawk, or an owl, or of a small kind of frog be heard, it is a sign that sickness will follow if the design be pursued;

ITY TO T

vice to us in destroying great numbers of vermin. A Swiss naturalist, speaking of th

qu'il poursuive de ses malédictions les êtres qui le servent le mieux. Je joindrai donc ma faible v

plus de souris que n'en pourront prendre jamais les meilleurs taupiers. Les buses n'ont nullement mérité leur place sur la porte de nos granges, et plut?t que de les tuer, l'on

OUS TR

th reference to this bird, we may mention one

owl was a bake

Act iv

the shop immediately put a piece of dough into the oven to bake for him, but was reprimanded by her daughter, who, insisting that the piece of dough was too large, reduced it considerably in size. The dough, however, immediately afterwards b

.57 According to Nuttall, the north country nurses would have it that the owl was a daughter

? ? ?

daughter, and sat

hoolet, and hide

f hooting and shrieking is possessed by the same species. In the following passag

he bird of n

ay, upon the

and sh

only shrieks, and is, in fact, the bird always alluded to as the "screech-ow

s owl, that n

ht's Dream, A

hite owl in the act of hooting; and Mr. Boulton, of Beverley, Yorkshire, describes59 the note of one of these birds which he had reared from the nest, and kept in confinement for fiftee

OF TH

ature" the note of the br

ID

white or barn owl is a little different from that of the brown owls. It is onl

The pipe by which he tried their notes was a common half-crown pitchpipe. A neighbour, also, of the Selborne naturalist, who was said to have a nice ear, remarked that the

roceeded from different species of brown owls, o

ROBBING

of the owl is raised by the following

he poo

nutive of bir

in her nest, ag

ng by birds has often bee

creatures fe

s face be fearf

ction of thei

en them (even w

hey have us'd wit

im that climb'd

n lives in their

art III. Ac

NOT CON

s nest lodged on a water-spout under the roof of the house, and as though that visit was not successful, he repeated it, and then went to a nest on the next house, in the same way. It was too dark for me to see if he succeeded in his marauding expedition against the poor sparrows. Is it a common occurrence for an owl to go robbing nests? I never saw it done before, though I have lived all my life in

RACTER

ot old enough. No one else could have taken them, for the church could not be entered without the key, which he always kept. Had rats carried them off? The clerk said there were none. Had there been any, he must have heard or seen them on one or other of his many visits to the church, or at least have found signs of their presence. But this was never the case. He stated, however, that a pair of barn owls lived in the same spire, and he thought that they were the culprits, taking the young ones, as he said, as soon as they were fat enough, to save

around it. The barn owl merely resorts to it for repose and concealment. If it were really an enemy to the dove-cot, we should see the pigeons in commotion as soon as it begins its evening flight, but the pigeons heed it not; whe

TIRING

d situations is alluded to in T

es the sun; here

he night

terized the appearance of this b

-owl's laz

art III. Ac

FIVE

t can see in the dark, and is the only bird which looks straightforward. Shakespeare frequently

warming hi

wl in the b

," says:-"Certes delites been after the appetites of the 'five wittes;' as sight, hereing, smelling, savouring, and touching

io. Am I

Yes, keep

he Shrew, A

enough to keep

o, Act

thy fiv

iii. Sc. 4, and

AME I

poem, reminds us of the quaint and characteristic

I

les hang b

shepherd bl

rs logs int

mes frozen

nipp'd, and

y sings the

-w

o-who, a m

Joan doth k

V

oud the win

drowns the

it brooding

nose looks

crabs hiss

y sings the

-w

o-who, a m

Joan doth k

el's song in The Tem

bee sucks,

slip's b

uch when o

o have found friends, and is generally represe

iry land!-O, sp

lins, owls, and

Errors, Ac

but the folio of 1632 has "elves

COMR

in introducing, for there appears to be a diff

abjure all ro

··

de with the w

y's shar

r, Act i

into consideration t

ade with the

y's shar

ing. Albeit, in support of the former version, th

s' and wolves' de

y adopted them only to impart an air of reality to the scenes which he depicted, and to bring them home more forcibly to the impressionable minds of his auditors, to whom such "folks-lore" would be familiar. This is notably the case as regards the owl, and no one can read the first scene

'S GOOD

u

herald, shrieks,

and

in Love's Labour's Lost (A

ght, my