STRIX, the OWL; a genus of birds belonging to the order of accipitres. See ORNITHOLOGY Index.
The bubo, or great-eared owl inhabits inaccessible rocks and desert places, and preys on hares and feathered game. Its appearance in cities was deemed an unlucky omen; Rome itself once underwent a lustration because one of them strayed into the capitol. The ancients had them in the utmost abhorrence; and thought them, like the screech-owls, the messengers of death. Pliny styles it bubo funebris, and noctis monstrum.
Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo
Sape queri et longas in fletum ducere voces. VIRGIL.
Perch'd on the roof, the bird of night complains,
In lengthen'd shrieks and dire funereal strains.