THE OWL. 178

in the woods, this ghostly watchman has frequently warned
me of the approach of morning, and amused me with his
singular exclamations, sometimes sweeping down and around
my fire, uttering a loud and sudden ‘Waugh O! waugh O!
sufficient to have alarmed a whole garrison. He has other
nocturnal solos, no less melodious, one of which very much
resembles the half-suppressed screams of a person suffocating
or throttled, and cannot fail of being extremely entertaining
to a lonely benighted traveller, in the midst of an Indian
wilderness.” The eagle-owl generally builds in lofty trees or
in rocks; the eggs seldom exceed two in number, and are
of a pure white colour. The bird itself is about two feet in
length ; its plumage is brown, mingled with yellow, and
marked with wavy lines, bars, and dashes of black: the
male has some white on the breast. One species of owl
was the sacred bird of Minerva; it is also treated with great
respect by some tribes of the American Indians. The Rab-
bins imagine the word Jidith to denote a spectre in the form
of a winged female, that lay in wait for children by night,
“and destroyed them. “In the unpublished travels of Cap-
tains Irby and Mangles the following observation occurs in
their account of Petra:—‘The screaming of eagles, hawks,
and owls, who were soaring above our heads in considerable