A young Owl wanted to marry the daughter of the Eagle. A Crow presented the proposal. The Eagle said OK if the Owl would meet at sunrise. No marriage.
Know your place.
JBR Collection
A young Owl having accidentally seen himself in a crystal fountain, conceived the highest opinion of his personal perfections. “‘Tis time,” said he, “that Hymen should g1ve me children as beautiful as myself, to be the glory of the night, and the ornament of our groves. What a pity it would be if the race of the most accomplished of birds should be extinct for my want of a mate! Happy the female who is destined to spend her life with me!” Full of these self-approving thoughts, he entreated the Crow to propose a match between him and the royal daughter of the Eagle. “Do you imagine,” said the Crow, “that the noble Eagle, whose pride it is to gaze on the brightest of the heavenly luminaries, will consent to marry his daughter to you, who cannot so much as open your eyes whilst it is daylight?” But the self-conceited Owl was deaf to all that his friend could urge; who, after much persuasion, was at length prevailed upon to undertake the commission. His proposal was received in the manner that might be expected; the king of birds laughed him to scorn. However, being a monarch of some humour, he ordered him to acquaint the Owl that if he would meet him the next morning at sunrise in the middle of the sky, he would consent to give him his daughter in marriage. The presumptuous Owl undertook to perform the condition; but being dazzled with the sun, and his head growing giddy, he fell from his height upon a rock, from whence being pursued by a flight of birds, he was glad at last to make his escape into the hollow of an old oak, where he passed the remainder of his days in that obscurity for which Nature designed him.
