CLIFF-DWELLERS 23 



pared for them. The prairie owls are famed for 

 their system of chummage. In this case, it seems 

 that the birds are always the guests of the animals. 

 Although the owls are expert miners and engineers 

 quite capable of planning and digging their own 

 homes, like many people, they prefer ready-made 

 ones. Sometimes one finds prairie owls, rattle- 

 snakes, and prairie dogs all living amicably together 

 in the same cave. And there are numerous families 

 of otters, sheldrakes, and stormy petrels living on 

 the best of terms in their little underground apart- 

 ment homes. 



These miniature houses are wonderfully arranged 

 according to the most approved homes of man. The 

 main gallery is occupied by the otter and the shel- 

 drakes, while the petrels live in tiny side rooms, not 

 much larger than a mouse's home. From the 

 otter's sleeping room is a small canal for carrying 

 off water, and a rubbish-hole under the entrance. 

 To the right of the entrance is a small excavation 

 for the storage of fish-bones and other garbage. 



The prairie owls are perhaps the most daring of 

 all the cave-dwellers in their friendships. This is 

 due to many causes. Community of interests 

 makes them gregarious to an extraordinary degree, 

 while the conditions of life in desert regions make 

 them cast their lives with the prairie dogs, wolves. 



