CHAPTER XX

THE OWLS

"I am become as an owl of the waste place.”—David. WHEN night fell over the Holy Land, and all the country from Edom and the desert of Shur to the farthest northward range of Lebanon, and from Syria and Arabia to the great sea, lay under its spell, the reign of the owl family began. When the tropical moon silvered the sands of the desert, stretched molten paths across the seas, sailed with the current down the Jordan, and laughed at her reflected face in Meroni and the Red Sea, the great horned owl crept from the homes of the dead near Carmel, from caves of robbers close to Gennesaret, from ruins around Jericho, from fallen cities in Judea, from desert thickets, from mountain and forest fastnesses, and lifted its weird voice.

Then all the little owls from Tyre to Askelon set up their wavering accompaniment to the beating surf of the Mediterranean. Their companions of ruins, hollow trees, caves, desert thickets and forests, lakes and rivers, over plain, field, and valley called to each other to awake and come out to moonlight, love-making, and good feeding.

Not to be surpassed, the screech owls from the hills near Damascus, the Lebanon valleys, down the coast from Sidon to Gaza, around Merom, near the cities of the Jordan Valley from Sechem to Jerusalem, close to Nazareth and Bethlehem, raised their wavering voices in a chant to the moon, the friend to night-hunters.

Belated caravans crossing the wilderness of Shur, coming in from the Arabian desert and across the hot sands of Syria, called to lagging camels and urged them to hasten. Shepherds watching their herds and flocks over hills, in valleys, and at watering-places near the edges of the

desert shuddered and whispered an appeal to the living God for protection; for superstition was in their blood, and the cries were awesome. All the inhabitants of field and plain felt the heart leap of apprehension. In villages and walled cities tired workers turned on their beds and breathed a prayer for safety. When the wail broke in the gardens around the palaces of kings where great courts held revel, people shuddered as they danced.

For the owl is introduced in the Bible only to say that it is unfit for human food, and to prove that its voice can add a last touch to any picture of horror. This bird appeared as frequently as any other in the Bible of my childhood. Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah all put it into every picture of desolation they drew. The latest versions seem to feel that this was a mistake of translators, and that the bird intended was the ostrich. Perhaps this is right, but I doubt it in most instances. The ostrich had sufficient vocal accomplishments to entitle it to a place among any list of horrors made by sound, but the ostrich was a bird of light, of wide range, and voracious appetite. I imagine that when it had hunted all day searching for food along the edges of the desert, and returned to its nest at night, it was tired enough to sleep until morning. Moreover, it was a bird that was not found near many of the ruins mentioned, where the latest versions place it; for most of these were caused by the fortunes of war and were the remains of cities built near fertile valleys, rich farming land, fruit orchards, and gardens. Ruins were among too much civilization, where there were too many people to pursue the ostrich for its valuable plumage, and where its nesting conditions did not prevail. Almost without exception the owl belonged to the locations described, was altogether a creature of the night, had the voice to fill all the requirements of the text, and vocalised constantly in courting, hunting, and singing for joy of the moonlight on Lebanon range, Galilee lake, and shining Merom water.

The first place in the new version I find the owl left in such a picture as these Bible writers painted when predicting desolation, was when Isaiah called on the nations

utter

to come and hear what he had to say concerning destruction." It was that prophecy in which the streams were to be turned to pitch, the dust to brimstone, the smoke to ascend for ever, and no one should even pass through the land. "But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it; and the owl and the raven shall dwell therein: and he shall stretch over it the line of confusion and the plummet of emptiness." Thorns were to grow in the palaces, and thistles in the fortresses, and all kinds of beasts, monsters, and dragons were to live there.

The other owl I find of all those that produced such delightful shudders in my first acquaintance with the Bible, is in that psalm of David, in which in declining life he felt so discouraged over his greatest sin: for David was one of the best men of an age when Christians really lived what they taught. In his case it was almost as much artistic temperament as real necessity for self-abasement, for undoubtedly David was the most lovable character of all the writers of the Old Testament. But he felt that his one lapse darkened his whole record, and he was a poet, so he voiced his depression in these lines:

"My heart is smitten like grass and withered;

For I forget to eat my bread:

By reason of the voice of my groaning,

My bones cleave to my flesh.

I am like a pelican of the wilderness;

I am become as an owl of the waste places.
I watch, and am become like a sparrow
That is alone upon the house top."

The reason the owl figured in these pictures of desolation and among the food that was an abomination, was because it deserved to be there in the last instance, and was slandered in the first. As an article of diet, the owl was not attractive. Its meat was dark, rank, and tough at an early age. The food of the bird was almost entirely meat; rats, mice, fowl, and small living creatures it could capture and swallow.

Mated pairs seemed affectionate near their nests, which they placed according to species and location. They brooded in caves, on dark cliffs, in hollow trees, towers,

holes in walls, branches of trees in the open, burrows in embankments, and in the sand of the desert and waste places. They laid from four to six eggs, according to species, and cared for their young with great solicitude. These young were downy little white babies, the most cunning imaginable; and they feathered slowly, so that only one brood to a season was possible.

The Bible mentions the great owl," the "little owl," and the " screech owl." They also had an owl which closely resembled our barn owl, but no passage seems to refer directly to it; though it is the bird that most probably would be in the timbers of ruined cities and in mosque and temple towers. The great owl was almost two feet in height and closely resembled our great horned owl.

The "little owl" might have been any one of a number of small species which could make the required noise. We still designate one family of small owls by the name "screech" because of their peculiar wavering cry. The ancients originated the idea.

It is certain that when night came, and the owls cried in forest, ruin, cave, temple, vineyards, and gardens, every one shuddered. This was altogether unfair to the bird. Owls are unusually safe in their daytime seclusion and their night-hunting. They remain in pairs for life, and live in the same location, which proves them satisfied and happy birds. When they lift up their voices and "hoot," and to-whit-to-whoo," and waver, quaver, and screech, they are courting a mate, calling to locate one another, or performing a hallelujah anthem to the glory of the Almighty, who made them with art so perfect to their environment that they exult for abounding joy of life, as do the lark and linnet.

When the owl had been housed all day in darkness, night came, and it awoke and went out to find food for its family, why should it not perch on a sycamore and tell the Almighty what it thought of the forests of Lebanon and Judea, while the moon sailed serenely across the sky, while falling dew concentrated the heavy odours near the face of the earth, when the night hawk and bat wavered near it hunting sweet-loving insects, called a-wing by

night perfumes? The lark carolled over the grain fields of Boaz, the blackbirds praised the rushes of Galilee, the thrushes extolled the spice thickets of Sharon; why should not the owl chant of moonlight, good hunting, and its happy home in Palestine?

But every nation, from the beginning of time, has abused this bird, forgetful of its beautiful plumage, its miraculous eyes, its noble appearance, and the marvels of evolution that could result in such a creature.

Always its cry is the basis of the discrimination against it. Nigidius said that owls had the power to change their voices into nine different tunes." He must have heard nine different species of owl, and thought one was making all the noise. Pliny classed them among the most unlucky of all birds, and his description of them surely is forceful. Here is what he had to record of owls and screech owls:

"These see but badly in the daytime. The screech owl always betokeneth some heavy news that is most execrable and accursed, and namely in the presages of public affairs : he keepeth ever in deserts and loveth not only such unpeopled places, but also that are horrible and hard of access. In summe, he is the very monster of the night, neither crying nor singing out clear, but uttering a certain heavy groan of doleful mourning. And therefore if he be seen to fly either within cities, or otherwise about in any place, it is not good, but prognosticates some fearful misfortune. Howbeit I myself know that he hath sitten upon many houses of private men, and yet no deadly accident followed thereupon."

I am very happy that Pliny added that last line. It is good to hear some one speak a word of commendation for these birds. I am glad that no deadly misfortune happened to those upon whose houses a stray screech owl chanced to perch. I have been in the habit of opening the windows, and calling them into the cabin in winter, and letting them perch upon my hands and head as I made studies of them. They are of the birds with which I can converse so familiarly as to receive a reply, and toll them with my voice. If any deadly misfortune has