I was reading the first ever bird book published in the English language, as you do. Its abbreviated title is the Ornithology of Francis Willughby by John Ray (1678), the Latin version was published two years earlier. Tawny owls come in a range of colours ranging from rufous to grey, but in Ray's book he describes two species of Tawny Owl; the Common Brown or Ivy-owl (Strix aluco) and the Grey Owl (Strix cinerea). Apart from the grey colouration, Ray states "it is distinguished by manifest notes, and which argue a specifical difference". So it appears that the female's "kew-ick" and the male's "hoo-hoo-oo" were thought to be calls from the two species. As a child I remember "Brown Owl" being an alternative name for Tawny Owl but I have never heard of Ivy-owl before, yet it is a brilliant name as I find them hiding in Ivy more than any other plant.
Ray says that Linnaeus' name Strix is taken from Stringere (the Latin verb to strangle) "because it strangles people while they are asleep". There also seems to have been some confusion with the Nightjar at this time because Ray writes "Aldrovandus writes that the Country-people about Bononia told him, that the Strix or Screech Owl used to suck (I should add here that the printed s looks like an f) their goats: Which ours (as far as I have heard) was never complained of for doing." It was the Nightjar (whose scientific name Caprimulgus translates as goat-milker) that was reputed to suckle goats, though its bird enzymes cannot digest milk, which is a mammal product.
And finally, John Ray who wrote the 1678 Ornithology is one of very few people to have a British plant with an English name commemorating him. Though recently, it has been demoted to a subspecies; Ray's Knotgrass (Polygonum oxyspermum subsp raii). I've posted a photo of Ray's Knotgrass below.
If you want to look at John Ray's Ornithology you can do so on the excellent Biodiversity Heritage Library here:
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/129443#page/7/mode/1up
The descriptions of his two Tawny Owls are on pages 102 and 103, and the illustrations are on Tab XIII towards the end. They also have a Flickr page with hundreds of albums of illustrations from ancient books. It's well worth a browse:
www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/albums/ 