Thenceforth his countrymen held the owl to be a sacred bird, and every
one wore a plume of its feathers on his head.
One of the smallest of the owl tribe utters but one melancholy note now
and then. The Indians in North America whistle whenever they chance to
hear the solitary note; and if the bird does not very soon repeat his
harmless cry, the speedy death of the superstitious hearer is foreboded.
It is hence called the death bird. The voices of all carnivorous birds
and beasts are harsh, and at times hideous; and probably, like that of
the owl, which, from the width and capacity of its throat, is in some
varieties very powerful, may be intended as an alarm and warning to the
birds and animals on which they prey, to secure themselves from the
approach of their stealthy foe.
Owls are divided into two groups or families--one having two tufts of
feathers on the head, which have been called ears or horns, and are
moveable at pleasure, the others having smooth round heads without
tufts. The bills are hooked in both. There are upwards of sixty species
of owls widely spread over almost every part of the known world; of
these we may count not fewer than eight as more or less frequenting this
country.
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