The _owl_ was reckoned a bird of evil omen with the Romans, who derived this opinion from the Etrurians, along with much else of their so-called science of augury. It was particularly dreaded if seen in a city, or, indeed, anywhere by day.
PLINY (Caius Plinius Secundus, A.D. 61-before 115) informs us that on one occasion "a horned owl entered the very sanctuary of the Capitol; . . . in consequence of which, Rome was purified on the nones of March in that year."[1]
[1] PLINY: _Natural History_, bk. x. chap. xvi. (BOSTOCK and RILEY'Strans., vol. ii., 1855, p. 492).
The folk-lore of the British Isles abounds with quaint beliefs and stories concerning birds. There is a charming Welsh legend concerning the _robin_, which the Rev. T. F. T. DYER quotes from _Notes and Queries_:--"Far, far away, is a land of woe, darkness, spirits of evil, and fire. Day by day does this little bird bear in his bill a drop of water to quench the flame. So near the burning stream does he fly, that his dear little feathers are SCORCHED;and hence he is named Brou-rhuddyn (Breast-burnt). To serve little children, the robin dares approach the infernal pit. No good child will hurt the devoted benefactor of man. The robin returns from the land of fire, and therefore he feels the cold of winter far more than his brother birds.
He shivers in the brumal blast; hungry, he chirps before your door."[2]
[2] T. F. THISELTON DYER, M.A.: _English Folk-Lore_ (1878), pp.
65 and 66).
Another legend accounts for the robin's red breast by supposing this bird to have tried to pluck a thorn from the crown encircling the brow of the crucified CHRIST, in order to alleviate His sufferings.
No doubt it is on account of these legends that it is considered a crime, which will be punished with great misfortune, to kill a robin.
In some places the same prohibition extends to the _wren_, which is popularly believed to be the wife of the robin.
In other parts, however, the wren is (or at least was) cruelly hunted on certain days. In the Isle of Man the wren-hunt took place on Christmas Eve and St Stephen's Day, and is accounted for by a legend concerning an evil fairy who lured many men to destruction, but had to assume the form of a wren to escape punishment at the hands of an ingenious knight-errant.
For several centuries there was prevalent over the whole of civilised Europe a most extraordinary superstition concerning the small Arctic bird resembling, but not so large as, the common wild goose, known as the _barnacle_ or _bernicle goose_.
MAX MUELLER[1] has suggested that this word was really derived from _Hibernicula_, the name thus referring to Ireland, where the birds were caught; but common opinion associated the barnacle goose with the shell-fish known as the barnacle (which is found on timber exposed to the sea), supposing that the former was generated out of the latter.
Thus in one old medical writer we find: "There are founde in the north parts of Scotland, and the Ilands adjacent, called Orchades [Orkney Islands], certain trees, whereon doe growe certaine shell fishes, of a white colour tending to russet; wherein are conteined little liuing creatures:
which shells in time of maturitie doe open, and out of them grow those little living things; which falling into the water, doe become foules, whom we call Barnakles . . . but the other that do fall vpon the land, perish and come to nothing:
this much by the writings of others, and also from the mouths of the people of those parts...."[1b]
[1] See F. MAX MUELLER'S _Lectures on the Science of Language_(1885), where a very full account of the tradition concerning the origin of the barnacle goose will be found.
[1b] JOHN GERARDE: _The Herball; or, Generall Historie of Plantes_ (1597). 1391.
The writer, however, who was a well-known surgeon and botanist of his day, adds that he had personally examined certain shell-fish from Lancashire, and on opening the shells had observed within birds in various stages of development. No doubt he was deceived by some purely superficial resemblances--for example, the feet of the barnacle fish resemble somewhat the feathers of a bird.
He gives an imaginative illustration of the barnacle fowl escaping from its shell, which is reproduced in fig. 12.
Turning now from superstitions concerning actual birds to legends of those that are purely mythical, passing reference must be made to the _roc_, a bird existing in Arabian legend, which we meet in the _Arabian Nights_, and which is chiefly remarkable for its size and strength.
The _phoenix_, perhaps, is of more interest.
Of "that famous bird of Arabia," PLINY writes as follows, prefixing his description of it with the cautious remark, "I am not quite sure that its existence is not all a fable.""It is said that there is only one in existence in the whole world, and that that one has not been seen very often.
We are told that this bird is of the size of an eagle, and has a brilliant golden plumage around the neck, while the rest of the body is of a purple colour; except the tail, which is azure, with long feathers intermingled of a roseate hue; the throat is adorned with a crest, and the head with a tuft of feathers.
The first Roman who described this bird . . . was the senator Manilius.... He tells us that no person has ever seen this bird eat, that in Arabia it is looked upon as sacred to the sun, that it lives five hundred and forty years, that when it becomes old it builds a nest of cassia and sprigs of incense, which it fills with perfumes, and then lays its body down upon them to die;that from its bones and marrow there springs at first a sort of small worm, which in time changes into a little bird;that the first thing that it does is to perform the obsequies of its predecessor, and to carry the nest entire to the city of the Sun near Panchaia, and there deposit it upon the altar of that divinity.
