SOURCE: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling (2003) .

DESCRIPTION: "There were creatures standing between the carriage staffs. If he had had to give them a name, he supposed he would have called them horses, though there was something reptilian about them too. They were completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil-less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from each wither -- vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats..." (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling)

NOTES: These hideous-looking horses hide their appearance from others with an invisibility charm. Only a person who has seen death will see them. Luna Lovegood and Harry Potter are two such people. The thestrils are used to pull the carriages at Hogwarts. To most they appear to pull themselves. Despite their hideous looks and great bat-like wings, the thestrils are mild-mannered beasts unlike Abrazan Horses in Goblet of Fire. Thestrels are emeat-eaters and will attack birds occasionally, though Hagrid has trained the Hogwarts thestrels not to bother owls.

HISTORY: Rowling may have got the idea for the hideous creature cloaked in invisibility from C. S. Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawntreader which features the Dufflepuds. She uses the concept as a wonderful euphemism for Harry's sense of estrangement which he shares with Luna.

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