Identifier: scripturenatural00reli (find matches)
Title: Scripture natural history: containing a description of quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, amphibia, fishes, insects, molluscous animals, corals, plants, trees, precious stones, and metals, mentioned in the Holy Scriptures
Year: 1845 (1840s)
Authors: Religious Tract Society (Great Britain) Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Publication
Subjects: Nature in the Bible
Publisher: Philadelphia, Presbyterian board of publication
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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-0-4 PEREGRINE FALCON. The Greeks consecrated the hawk to Apollo, andamong the Egyptians no animals were held in suchhigh veneration as the hawk and the ibis. The common sparrow-hawk has the same coloursas the goshawk, but its legs are higher, and its sizeabout a third less. THE OWL. Order.—Raptores, or Birds of prey. Owls are nocturnal birds of prey. They are distin-guished by their thick heads and their large eyes, sur-rounded with a circle of feathers. The enormouspupils of their eyes admit so much light, that they areblind in open day, and see best at dusk or by moon-light. Their hearing is quicker than that of most birds.Some of them have tufts of feathers over each eye,usually called horns. The external toe may be moved 82 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. forward or backward at pleasure. They live mostlyon small birds and mice, which they swallow whole,and return the bones, feathers, or hair, in small pellets,by the mouth. Their quill-feathers are so light and
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COMMON BAHInT OWL. downy that they make scarcely any noise in flying,which assists them in taking their prey unawares. The little owl, Lev. xi. 17; Dent. xiv. 16: Psa.cii. 6, is supposed to be the common white owl, which THE OWL. 83 is found in every quarter of the globe. It frequentsbarns and outhouses in search of mice and rats. Itbuilds its nest in the clefts of old walls, or in hollowtrees. The word rendered great owl in Lev. xi. 17;Deut. xiv. 16; Isa. xxxiv. 11, most probably meansthe ibis. The screech owl, in Isa. xxxiv. 14, isperhaps the great-eared, or, rather, tufted owl, whichmeasures two feet, or more, from the extremity ofthe beak to that of the tail, and is little inferiorin size to the common eagle. The legs are feath-ered to the toes. In Europe, it is most commonin Germany, Russia, and the Rock of Gibraltar, andis sometimes, though rarely, seen in Scotland andEngland. A very different word is also translated great owlin Isa. xxxiv. 15, which occurs nowhere else in theBi

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