practised in Waldron's time, in the Isle of Man, on
the day before Christmas Day, though lately on
St. Stephen's Day.  It is called wren-hunting,
and is founded on a tradition, that in former
times, a fairy, of uncommon beauty, exerted
such undue influence over the male population,
that she, at various times, induced by her sweet
voice numbers to follow her footsteps, till by
degrees she led them into the sea, where they
perished.  This barbarous exercise of power had
continued for a great length of time, till it was
apprehended that the island would be exhausted
of its defenders, when a knight-errant sprung
up, who discovered some means of countervailing
the charms used by this syren, and even laid
a plot for her destruction, which she only escaped
at the moment of extreme hazard, by taking the
form of a wren. But, though she evaded instant
annihilation, a spell was cast upon her by which
she was condemned, on every succeeding New
Year's Day, to reanimate the same form with
the definitive sentence, that she must ultimately
perish by human hand.  In consequence of this
legend, on the specified anniversary, every man
and boy in the island (except those who have
thrown off the trammels of superstition) devote
the hours between sunrise and sunset to the
hope of extirpating the fairy, and woe be to the
individual birds of this species who show
themselves on this fatal day to the active enemies of
the race;  they are pursued, pelted, fired at, and
destroyed, without mercy, and their feathers
preserved with religious care, it being an article
of belief, that every one of the relics gathered in
this laudable pursuit is an effectual preservative
from shipwreck for one year, and that fisherman
would be considered as extremely foolhardy, who
should enter upon his occupation without such
a safeguard.

The unlucky birds were vultures and kites,
which smelt carnage from afar, and were always
on the look-out for their feast of dead.  Hawks
and buzzards also, probably from their cruel and
predatory habits, were usually esteemed
unlucky, though if the prey escaped it was a good
sign.  So also owls were usually inauspicious,
but, inasmuch, as the owl was sacred to
Minerva, the foundress and protectress of
Athens, there, at least, they were omens of victory
and success; and when Hiero of Syracuse,
afterwards king, was admitted into the military
service, it is said an eagle came and sat upon
his shield and an owl upon his spear, by which
was portended that he should be valiant in war,
wise in council, and, at length, attain regal dignity.
The Athenian proverb for good fortune
was, "The owl flies."  But, in other places, owls
were unlucky omens when seen by men going
about any serious business.  Thus, when Pyrrhus,
king of Epirus, was ignominiously slain
at Argos by an Argive woman, who, seeing her
son in danger, threw down a tile which brought
the king to the ground, it was said that his
fate had been portended by an owl, which came
and sat upon the top of his spear as he held it
in his hand.  Bats also, which were thought to
be birds, and, in the quaint language of Holland,
the translator of Pliny, " the onely bird
that suckleth its little ones," were equally inauspicious;
but even the favourite swallow was
also regarded as unlucky.  Although these
messengers of spring were welcomed with pleasure
and admiration in most ages and countries, it is
no less true that, when flying about or resting
upon a place, they were looked upon as birds of
evil omen.  In Darius's Scythian expedition,
the appearance of swallows presaged the total
defeat of his army by the enemy; and Tzetzes,
the commentator on Hesiod, as well as Apuleius,
enumerate the swallow in their list of inauspicious
birds. Amongst the signs and wonders
cited to urge upon the world the first crusade,
was clouds of birds and butterflies that
darkened the air in various places—all winging
their way towards Jerusalem.*  Matthew of
Paris records that just before the great schism
that split the Popedom into two —which event
it presaged —the air was darkened in
Northumberland with the feathers of birds which fell
from innumerable flights of them that fought
like maniacs as they flew.

It was not every bird that could be a sure
messenger of the gods; those we have named
were chiefly consulted.  Nor was it always the
appearance and manner of flight which were
regarded.  Some belonged to the class (called
"oscines") whose voice revealed the will of the
gods.  Thus cocks, which were sacred to Mars,
were regarded as prophetical in all matters relating
to war, and their crowing was hailed as
an omen of good, presaging victory.  Themistocles,
whose victory over the Persians was announced
in this manner, paid a very doubtful
compliment to the birds by establishing an.
annual feast, at which cock-fighting in the
theatre was a great feature.  And when, for
some nights before the battle in which the
Bœotians overthrew the Lacedæmonians, the
cocks crew all night, it was interpreted as an
omen of success, because the cock, when
victorious, struts, and crows his triumph.  But
Shakespeare gives a legendary reason for "the
bird of dawning's" perseverance during at least
one night in the year, in the following charming
lines:

It faded on the crowing of tbe cock.
Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes,
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

If a hen was heard to crow, some dreadful
judgment was thought to be hanging over the
world.  But, as hens do not usually crow, this
dread was not often begotten.

We have also a modern saw on the subject
of a "whistling woman and a crowing hen."
Divination, by help of a cock, was effected in
the following manner, for the purpose of discovering
some secret or future event:  the
twenty-four letters of the alphabet having been
written in the dust, upon each letter was laid

* Chronicles of St. Medard of Soissons, p. 486.