had in his hand, missed his blow, upon which the owl repeated
the attack, and, with her talons fastened on his face, tore out one of
his eyes, and scratched him in the most shocking manner.

A gentleman in Yorkshire, having observed the scales of fishes in the
nest of a couple of barn owls that lived in the neighborhood of a lake,
was induced, one moonlight night, to watch their motions, when he was
surprised to see one of the old birds plunge into the water and seize a
perch, which it bore to its young ones.

A party of Scottish Highlanders, in the service of the Hudson's Bay
Company, happened, in a winter journey, to encamp, after nightfall, in
a dense clump of trees, whose dark tops and lofty stems, the growth of
centuries, gave a solemnity to the scene that strongly tended to excite
the superstitious feelings of the Highlanders. The effect was
heightened by the discovery of a tomb, which, with a natural taste
often exhibited by the Indians, had been placed in this secluded spot.
Our travellers, having finished their supper, were trimming their fire
preparatory to retiring to rest, when the slow and dismal notes of the
horned owl fell on the ear with a startling nearness. None of them
being acquainted with the sound, they at once concluded that so
unearthly a voice must be the moaning of the spirit of the departed,
whose repose they supposed they had disturbed by inadvertently making a
fire of some of the wood of which his tomb had been constructed. They
passed a tedious night of fear, and with the first dawn of day, hastily
quitted the ill-omened spot.

Genghis Khan, who was founder of the empire of the Mogul Tartars, being
defeated, and having taken shelter from his enemies, owed his
preservation to a snowy owl, which was perched over the bush in which
he was hid, in a small coppice. His pursuers, on seeing this bird,
never thought it possible he could be near it. Genghis in consequence
escaped, and ever afterwards this bird was held sacred by his
countrymen, and every one wore a plume of its feathers on his head.

ORDER II.

PASSERINAE.

This order derives its name from _passer_, a sparrow; but the title is
not very appropriate, for it includes not sparrows only, but a variety
of birds greatly differing from them. They have not the violence of
birds of prey, nor are they restricted to a particular kind of food.
They feed mainly on insects, fruit, and grain.

THE SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER-BIRD.

One o