326 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



very active. On the pampas it is usually very tame, permitting one to walk up quite 

 close before taking flight for another bush or hillock ; but after sunset it becomes 

 very vigilant, flying up and hovering at a height of thirty or forty feet, and uttering 

 its screams of protest whenever an intruder appears in sight, thus giving ample warn- 

 ing to its neighbors, the viscachas. 



On the plains of the United States they seem to be more timid and wary, and are 

 said to feed mostly in the daytime. Their food is usually stated to consist mostly of 

 reptiles and insects, but they certainly consume large numbers of mice and some small 

 birds. They neither migrate nor hibernate, but are abroad and active all winter. 

 According to Mr. Agersborg, in south-eastern Dakota, in winter, as many as twenty of 



FIG. 151. Athene iioctua, little owl, civetta. 



these birds may be found living together in the same burrow, and in one such case he 

 found forty-three mice and several shore-larks " scattered along the run to their com- 

 mon apartment." 



The nest is simply a collection of grass, feathers, and rubbish placed at the end of 

 the burrow, and contains from five to ten short elliptical, or nearly spherical, white, 

 unspotted eggs. The nest, and often the entire burrow, is filthy beyond description, 

 from the accumulation of remnants of food, the ejected pellets of the birds them- 

 selves, etc. 



The nearest relatives of Speotyto would seem to be the members of the Old "World 

 genus, Athene ( Carine), and one or more species from the West Indies, belonging to 

 the genus Gymnasia. G. laicrenci, found in Cuba, is rather smaller than the burrow- 

 ing-owl, and with proportionally shorter legs, the tarsi and feet, moreover, being per- 



