OWEN, CAPTAIN W. F., an officer of the British navy, who between 1822 and 1826 surveyed the southern and eastern coasts of Madagascar, the shores of Madagascar, and neighbouring islands.
Sickness overtook the ill-fated expedition, and nearly all the officers perished.
OWL.
Owlet, . . , . . Hum.
Bulo, . . I . Gza. Civetta, . . . . IT.
The owls are the nocturnal tribe of the order Raptores, or birds of prey. They aro arranged by naturalists under the family Strigidte of the order Raptorcs, and are subdivided into the sub families Striginte, Syrniinm, Asioninte, Bubooinie, and Surniium.
Owls are found throughout tho world, and many races, alike of Europe and of Asia, continue to entertain superstitious opinions regarding species of this nocturnal genus. The horror of the owl's nocturnal scream has been equally prevalent in the west as in the east. Ovid introduces it in his Fasti, L. vi. 1. p. 139, but Tibullus in his Elegies, L. i. El. v. says Pliny, lxi. c. 93, doubts as to what bird produced the hated sound ; and the details of Ovid's description do not apply to an owl. The women of India, hearing the hooting of the ghugu, shut the ominous sounds from their ears by wrapping their sarees round their heads. And Shakespeare notices the common supersti tion, when he says: 'It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern'st good night.' Of the nocturnal accipitres of Ceylon, the most remarkable is the brown owl, Syrnium Indrani, Sykes, which, from its hideous yell, has acquired the name of the devil bird. The Singhalese regard it literally with horror, and its scream by night in the vicinity of a village is bewailed as the harbinger of impending calamity. There is a popular legend in connection with it, to the effect that a morose and savage husband, who suspected the fidelity of his wife, availed himself of her absence to kill her child, of whose paternity lie was doubtful, and on her return placed before her a curry prepared from its flesh. Of this the
unhappy woman partook, till, discovering the crime by finding the finger of her infant, she fled in frenzy to the forest, and there destroyed herself. On her death she was metamorphosed, according td the Buddhist belief, into an nlama, or devil bird, which still at nightfall horrifies the villagers by repeating the frantic screams of the bereaved mother in her agony. Mr. Blyth, from Calcutta, wrote to Sir J. E. Tennant as to the Syrnium Indrani, Sykes, mentioning that there are some doubts about this bird. There would appear to be three or four distinguishable races, the Ceylon bird approximating most nearly to that of the Malayan Peninsula. Mr. Mitford, of the Ceylon Civil Service, also regards the identifica tion of the Singhalese devil bird 119 open to doubts. He says, The devil bird is an owl. I never heard it until I came to Kornegalle, where it haunts the rocky hill at the back of Govern ment House.' The unpleasant laugh of the fish owl of Ceylon (Ketupa ('eylonensis) is known ; no sound grates harsher on the ear, or is more calculated to bring back recollections of hobgoblins, than the loud hollow voice of this otherwise fine bird ; nor is it less startling to creep through the bush and come suddenly on an individual moping at mid-day on a branch overhead, flashing his large orange eyes full on your face, as with outstretched wings he I snaps his bill, or, hissing defiance, makes straight off 'to the nearest cover, pursued by crested bul buls, jays, etc. This species is not often seen, its mid-day haunts are in impassable parts of the jungle.
The Indian owl (Athene brama) is numerous in the Ceylon jungles.
The Himalaya owl (Atbene cuculoides) is com mon in the woods and jungle, and is diurnal in its habits so far that Dr. Adams killed one at mid day with a rat in its talons ; the bird is, however, most often seen at dusk. Its favourite food con sists of mice, shrews, and large colcopterous insects.