- (all pronounced with an oo as in hoot) owl. The horned houlet is the long-eared owl Asio otus; the Jenny houlet is the tawny owl Strix aluco sylvatica; and the white houlet is the barn owl, Tyto alba.
It is not unusual to see an owl being mobbed by other birds:
Than fleis thow, lyk ane howlat chest with [chased by] crawis;
(WALTER KENNEDY The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy 1508)
An interesting observation occurs in Bellenden's translation of The Chronicles of Scotland by Hector Boece (1531):
Ane sparhalk wes strangulat be ane howlat.
Houlets in Scottish literature and lore are not regarded as benevolent and wise owls like English owls. Instead, they are treated with suspicion, as birds of darkness, and so to liken someone to an owl is to hold them in low esteem. There are many examples of such choice insults:
The said Johnne being ane fugitiue and ane howlat, nocht appearand in the day.
(ROBERT PITCAIRN Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland 1618)
Calling her ill-faced houlett, lyk that catt, thy sister...
(The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland 1663)
It issued in the question of fact as to whether said schoolmaster had called an elder or fellow Christian a cur carle [miser, old man, low fellow], or souters [shoemaker's] houlet
(ADAM RITCHIE The Churches of Saint Baldred: Auldhame, Whitekirk, Tyninghame, Prestonkirk 1700 in 1880 edition)
Let howlet Whigs do what they can, The Stuarts will be back again.
(Jacobite Minstrelsy 1715)