bird's ghost as it appeared to us just now.
Afterwards I enquired of the Popenkoffs' neighbours, and the information
I gathered fully confirmed my suspicions--that the unfortunate bird had
been put to death in a most barbarous manner. The deaths of the three
children laid to rest any doubt I may have had with regard to the
superphysical playing a part in the death of Marthe. Then when her
better-half had been served likewise, I was certain that all five
pseudo-murders were wholly and solely acts of retribution, and that they
were perpetrated--I am inclined to think involuntarily--by the spirit of
the owl itself. Accordingly, I decided to hold a seance here--here in
its old haunt, and if possible to put an end to the earth-bound
condition and wanderings of the soul of the unhappy bird. Thanks to
Father Mickledoff we have done so, and there will be no more so-called
murders near Orskaia."

_Hauntings by the Phantasms of Birds_

One of the most curious cases of hauntings by the phantasms of birds
happened towards the end of the eighteenth century in a church not
twenty miles from London. The sexton started the rumours, declaring that
he had heard strange noises, apparently proceeding from certain vaults
containing the tombs of two old and distinguished families. The noises,
which generally occurred on Friday nights, most often took the form of
mockings, suggesting to some of the listeners--the enaction of a murder,
and to others merely the flapping of wings.

The case soon attracted considerable attention, people flocking to the
church from all over the country-side, and it was not long before
certain persons came forward and declared they had ascertained the cause
of the disturbance. The churchwarden, sexton, and his wife and others
all swore to seeing a huge crow pecking and clawing at the coffins in
the vaults, and flying about the chancel of the church, and perching on
the communion rails. When they tried to seize it, it immediately
vanished.

An old lady, who came of a family of well-to-do yeomen, and who lived
near the church about that time, said that the people in the town had
for many years been convinced the church there was haunted by the
phantom of a bird, which they believed to be the earth-bound soul of a
murderer, who, owing to his wealth, was interred in the churchyard,
instead of being buried at the cross-roads with the customary wooden
stake driven through the middle of his body. This belief of the