THE COSMOPOLITE.

SUPERSTITIONS, FABLES, &c. RELATIVE TO ANIMALS.

(_Concluded from page 213_.)

The oriental fable of the _Roc_ has its probable origin in the condor,
which is undoubtedly the largest and strongest bird of the vulture tribe
in existence, and extremely ravenous. Minerva's bird, the _Owl_, is well
known as one of ill omen; besides the superstitious idea that the
screech-owl foretells death by its cry, it was formerly believed to suck
the blood of children. The Mongol and Calmuc Tartars have held the _White
Owl_ sacred since the days of Genghis Khan, when a bird of this species
having settled on a bush in which that prince had hidden himself from his
enemies, those who pursued him past it, not believing that a bird would
perch on a bush wherein a man was concealed. The _Raven_ has ever been
considered by the vulgar as a bird of evil omen, the indicator of
misfortunes and death; and, indeed, the superstition is but consonant with
a bird of such funereal note and hue, and exhibiting such goule-like
propensities. The Swedes, however, regard it as sacred, and no one offers
to molest it. In the north of England, one _Magpie_ flying alone, is
deemed an ill omen; two together, a fortunate one; three forebode a
funeral, and four a wedding; or, when on a journey, to meet two magpies
portends a wedding; three, a successful journey; four, unexpected good
news; and five, that the person will soon be in company with the great. To
kill a magpie, indicates or brings down some terrible misfortune. The
_Sparrow Hawk_ was sacred with the Egyptians, and the symbol of Osiris.
The _Yellow Hammer_ is superstitiously considered an agent _diablerie_.
The _Wheat-Ear_ is, in the Highlands, a detested bird, and fancied one of
evil omen, on account of its frequenting old churchyards, where it nestles
amongst the stones, and finds plenty of insects for food. The _Woodcock_
is, we believe, the bird imagined to drop, in its proper season, from the
moon. It is a vulgar error, that the song of the _Nightingale_ is
melancholy, and that it only sings by night; but to hear the Cuckoo before
the Nightingale has been long deemed an unsuccessful omen in love: the
saliva of the cuckoo has been thought to preserve all it falls upon.

"The _Robin_ and the _Wren_
Are God Almighty's cock and hen,"

says the old distich, and whilst it is reckoned wicked to kill either of
these (not but that there is an ancient custom of "hunting the w