QUOTATIONS, NOTES,
and EXPLANATIONS.
Line 1
Ill-omen'd bird, whose cries portentous float.
This Sonnet, first inserted in the novel called the Old Manor House, is founded on a superstition attributed (vide Bertram's Travels in America) to the Indians, who believe that the cry of this night hawk (Caprimulgus Americanus) portends some evil, and when they are at war, assert that it is never heard near their tents or habitations but to announce the death of some brave warrior of their tribe, or some other calamity.
