Epithets Advena, avidus, crassus, edax, gravis, macrus, peregrinus, pinguis, raucus, trutilans, vagus.

The song of the thrush (drosca):

Dulce per ora sonat, dicunt quam nomine droscam1

Sed fugiente die illa quieta silet.2

-Anth. Lat. 762, 11.

The brown rossignol's carol shrill.-STREET.
(Frontenac, Canadian Spring.)

Song-throstles, bold and fond

From Smyrna and from ancient Trebizond,
That sing in lofty tree-tops, at still noon,

A musical and melancholy tune.-GEN. ALBErt Pike.

From choirs that lurk in hedge and birch

From black bird and from mavis.-LOWELL.

What was it the mournful wood-thrush said?-WHITTIER.

And where the shadows deepest fell

The wood-thrush rang his silver bell.-WHITTIER.

The winding water's sounding rush,

The long note of the hermit thrush.-WHITTIER,

And the robin through the long

Twilight sang his slumber song.-SILL.

'Twas spring, and loud the mavis piped outside.-ALDRICH.

The wood-thrush of the west, shall sing
Earth's last sweet even-song.-HOLMES.

And best of all, through twilight's calm

The hermit-thrush repeats his psalm.-HENRY VAN DYKE.

I hear the wood-thrush piping one mellow descant more.

-BRYANT.

I muse, while still the wood-thrush sings down the golden day.

-BRYANT.

And while the wood-thrush pipes his evening lay.-BRYANT.

Her thrushes sing in Rathburn bowers.-WHITTIER.

'Cf. O. H. Germ. Drosce, M. Germ. Drossel.

'Cf. Hudson, op. cit., p. 43: "The throstle is a very persistent singer; throughout the day he sings at intervals, and again, more continuously, in the evening, when he keeps up an intermittent flow of melody until dark."

SPINTURNICIUM. Eлvdagis An unknown bird.

one of the smaller owls.

A comparison, which seems to suggest the habits of an owl:

Pithecium haec est prae illa et spinturnicium

Possibly

Viden tu illam oculis venaturum facere atque aucupium
-PLAUT., Mil. Glor. 989.

auribus?

Cf. Fest. 330. Spinthurnix est avis genus turpis figurae, ea Graece dicitur, ut ait Santra, oлvdagis. Vid. also Plin. X, 13, 17; Baehrens, P. L. M., p. 52.

Whippoorwill and owlet-things,

Whose far call before you brings
Wonder-worlds of happenings.-CAWEIN.

STRIX.

Σroi, et al. An Owl.

Vid. Plin. XI, 95.

Cawein: The Owlet.

Exact species indeterminate.

A bit of folklore combining references to harpies, witches and night owls, with some description of the latter, a derivation and an incantation:

Sunt avidae volucres, non quae Phineia mensis
Guttura fraudabant, sed genus inde trahunt:
Grande caput, stantes oculi, rostra apta rapinis,
Canities pinnis, unguibus hamus inest.
Nocte volant puerosque petunt nutricis egentes
Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis.

Est illis strigibus nomen, sed nominis huius

Causa, quod horrenda stridere nocte solent.
Sive igitur nascuntur aves seu carmine fiunt
Naeniaque in volucres Marsa figurat anus:

'Noctis aves, extis puerilibus,' inquit
Parcite: pro parvo victima parva cadit.
Cor pro corde, precor, pro fibris sumite fibras.
Hanc animam vobis pro meliore damus.'
-Ov., Fast. VI. 131 ff.

Cf. Ov., Am. I, 8, 13; Prop. IV, 5, 17.

The strix in magic and incantations:

Iubet sepulcris caprificos erutas,

Iubet cupressos funebres,
Et uncta turpis ova ranae sanguine,
Plumamque nocturnae strigis.

-HOR., Epod. V, 17.

Addit et exceptas luna pernocte pruinas
Et strigis infamis ipsis cum carnibus, alas.

-Ov., Met. VII, 268.

A nest of vipers, mix'd with adders foul;

The screeching night-bird, and the greater owl.

(The Anarchiad.)

-HUMPHREYS, BARLOW, HOPKINS,
TRUMBULL,

Serpents and caw-caws and bats,

Screech-owls and crickets and adders

These were the guides of that witch

Through the dank deeps of the forest.-FIELD.

The screech-owl's voice makes wild the breeze.
Mourn, mourn, thou feathered witch

Above the frozen ditch!-CAwein.
(Nature-Notes.)

The accursed birds of Hades:

Palus inertis foeda Cocyti iacet;
Hic vultur, illic luctifer bubo gemit,

Omenque triste resonat infaustaeque strigis:
Horrent opaca fronde nigrantes comae,
Taxo imminente, quam tenet segnis Sopor.

-SEN., Herc. Fur. 686.

Nor barking Satyrs breathe, nor dreary clouds.
Exhaled from Styx, their dismal drops distill
Within these fairy, flowery fields, nor shrouds
The screeching night raven, with his shady quill.

-JOHN ROGERS.

Where once was nought but desert, howling,

And swamps, scarce fit to pasture owl in.-Fessenden.

Within, the screech-owl made her mournful home,
And birds obscene that hover round the tomb.

-ALSOP.

With thrilling shrieks his dirge the Death-owl sings,
And birds ill-omen'd flap their dusky wings.—ALSOP.

With thee to guide my steps I'll creep
In some old haunted nook to sleep,
Lull'd by the dreary night-bird's scream,
That flits along the wizard stream,

And there, till morning 'gins appear,

The tales of troubled spirits hear.-CLIFFTON.

A yewtree in Hades the abode of the accursed birds:

Dextra vasta comas nemorosaque bracchia fundit
Taxus, Cocyti rigua frondosior unda.

His dirae volucres pastusque cadavere vultur
Et multus bubo ac sparsis strix sanguine pennis
Harpyiaeque fovent nidos atque omnibus haerent
Condensae foliis; saevit stridoribus arbor.

-SIL. ITAL. XIII, 595.

Another accursed tree with the same birds:

Illa dedit turpes raucis bubonibus umbras.
Vulturis in ramis et strigis ova tulit.

-Ov., Am. I, 12, 19.

Deep thro' the turnings of a darksome vale,

Where blasted trunks hung from th' impending steep,
Where oft was heard the owl's wild dreary wail.

-ALEXANDER WILSON.

Was it the owl, the koko-koko,

Hooting from the dismal forest?-LONGFELLOW.

The ill-omened note of the strix:

Hanc volitent animae circum sua fata querentes
Semper, et e tectis strix violenta canat.

-TIB. I, 5, 51.

Omenque triste resonat infaustae strigis.

-SEN., Herc. Fur. 688.

Resounding with the sad noises of the night owl.-WHITMAN.

Wail, wail, thou bird of ill omén,

Within thy freezing glen!

Screech, screech through all the frosty night

Where gleams the cold moonlight!

(Nature-Notes.)

--CAWEIN.

Quod trepidus bubo, quod strix nocturna queruntur.

-Luc. VI, 686.

Monstra volant, dirae strident in nube volucres
Nocturnaeque gemunt striges et feralia bubo
Damna canens.

-STAT., Theb. III, 510.

-Anth. Lat. 762, 39.

Strix nocturna sonans et vespertilio stridunt.

And bat and owl above his head

From out their gloomy caverns swing.-MILLER.

The bat and owl inhabit these.-LOWELL.

STURNUS. Wảo. Starling.

Sturnus vulgaris.

American parallels: The meadow-lark, red-winged blackbird, and the rusty and purple grackles furnish some points of contact as to habits and folk observation.

Cf. Holbrook, op. cit., p. 280 for comparison of Dante, Inf. V, 31 and Verg., Aen. VI, 308 (cf. Plin. X, 24; Hudson, op. cit., p. 156).

The bird commonly called the Meadow Lark with us is more nearly related to the Starling of this country (England) than to any other bird. I was particularly surprised that a low note, resembling the noise made by a wheel not well greased, was precisely the same in both, that the style