still in
existence. But I knew well what they were: I had seen many before,
carrying on just such a game. I knew they were buffalo bulls, engaged
in one of their terrible battles."

Here Basil's narrative was interrupted by a singular incident. Indeed,
it had been interrupted more than once by strange noises that were heard
at some distance off in the woods. These noises were not all alike: at
one time they resembled the barking of a cur dog; at another, they might
have been mistaken for the gurglings of a person who was being hanged;
and then would follow a shriek so dreadful that for some time the woods
would echo with its dismal sound! After the shriek a laugh would be
heard, but a miserable "haw-haw-haw!" unlike the laugh of a sane person.

All these strange voices were calculated to inspire terror, and so have
they many a time, with travellers not accustomed to the solitary woods
of America. But our young voyageurs were not at all alarmed by them.
They knew from what sort of a creature they proceeded; they knew they
were the varying notes of the great horned-owl (_Strix Virginiana_); and
as they had seen and heard many a one before, they paid no heed to this
individual.

While Basil was going on with his relation, the bird had been several
times seen to glide past, and circle around upon his noiseless pinions.
So easy was his flight, that the slightest inclining of his spread tail,
or the bending of his broad wing, seemed sufficient to turn and carry
him in any direction. Nothing could be more graceful than his flight,
which was not unlike that of the eagle, while he was but little inferior
in size to one of these noble birds.

What interrupted Basil was, that the owl had alighted upon a branch not
twenty feet from where they were all sitting round the fire, by the
blaze of which they now had a full view of this singular creature. The
moment it alighted, it commenced uttering its hideous and unmusical
cries, at the same time going through such a variety of contortions,
both with its head and body, as to cause the whole party a fit of
laughter. It was, in fact, an odd and interesting sight to witness its
grotesque movements, as it turned first its body, and then its head
around, without moving the shoulders, while its great honey-coloured
eyes glared in the light of the fire. At the end of every attitude and
utterance, it would snap its bill with such violence, that the cracking
of the mandibles upon