British Zoology Volume 1 - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1818 edition. Excerpt: ...had given the power of presaging death by its cries. The antients believed that it sucked the blood of young children; a fact not incredible, for Hasselquist describes a spe-cies found in Syria, which frequently in the evening flies in at the windows, and destroys the helpless infant. Nocte volant puerosque petunt nutricis egentes, Et ritiant cuneis corpora rapta suit. Carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera roslris, Et plenum potb sanguine guttur babent. Est i 1 lis strigibus nomen, sed nominis hujus Causa quod horrenda stridere nocte solent. Ovid. Fast. VI. 135. This is the bird Shakespeare describes so poetically in the Midsummer Night's Dream, as the omen of death in the mouth o(Puck. Now the wasted brands do glow, Whilst the scritch-owl scritching loud Puts the wretch that lies in woe In remembrance of a shroud. Description. The female of this species weighs nineteen ounces; the length is fourteen inches; the breadth two feet eight inches. The irides are dusky; the ears in this, as in all owls, very large, and their sense of hearing very exquisite. The color of this hind is sufficient to distinguish it from every other; that of the back, head, coverts of the wings, and the scapular feathers, being of a fine tawny red, elegantly spotted and powdered with black or dusky spots of various sizes; on the coverts of the wings, and on the scapulars, are several large white spots; the coverts of the tail are tawny, and quite free from any marks; the tail is variously blotched, barred and spotted with pale red and black; in the two middle feathers the red predominates; the breast and belly are yellowish, mixed with white, and marked with narrow black strokes, pointing downwards; the legs are covered with leathers down to the toes. This is a hardier...