180 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



meant to say that I was carrying the joke a httle too 

 far in pursuing her about. Presently she circled away 

 on oily wings, and I saw her no more. 



So little enthusiasm does such a bird stir within me 

 that I felt too lazy to follow her about on the arid 

 plain. It may be interesting as a matter of scientific 

 information to know that the burrowing owl breeds in 

 a hole in the ground, and keeps company with the 

 prairie dog and the rattlesnake, but a bird that lives in 

 a gloomy, malodorous cave, whose manners are far from 

 attractive, and whose voice sounds as strident as a buzz- 

 saw — surely such a bird can cast no spell upon the 

 observer who is interested in the aesthetic side of bird 

 nature. A recent writer, in describing " A Buzzards' 

 Banquet,^' asks a couple of pregnant questions : "• Is 

 there anything ugly out of doors ? Can the ardent, 

 sympathetic lover of nature ever find her unlovely ? *" 

 To the present writer these questions present no Chi- 

 nese puzzle. He simply brushes all speculation and 

 theorizing aside by responding " Yes," to both inter- 

 rogatories, on the principle that it is sometimes just as 

 well to cut the Gordian knot as to waste precious time 

 trying to untie it. The burrowing owl makes me think 

 of a denizen of the other side of the river Styx, and 

 why should one try to love that which nature has made 

 unattractive, especially when one caimot help one's 

 feeling ? 



