abominatus

Updated: May 25, 2025

"Solaque, culminibus ferali carmine bubo. Saepe queri et longas in fletum ducere voces," writes Virgil. Pliny, in describing this bird, says, "bubo funebris et maxime abominatus"; whilst Chaucer writes: "The owl eke that of death the bode ybringeth." In the Arundel family a white owl is said to be a sure indication of death.

Elliott O'Donnell - Animal Ghosts: Or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter