BIRDS OF KANSAS. 313 



under difficulties. Dr. Cooper says that he once dug two fresh 

 eggs out of a burrow, which he followed down for three feet, 

 and tlien traced for five feet horizontally, at the end of which 

 he fo«nd an enhxrged chamber, where the eggs were deposited 

 on a few feathers. In his interesting note in the American 

 Naturalist, Dr. C. S. Canfield gives a more explicit account of 

 the nesting: 'I once took pains to dig out a nest of the Athene 

 cunicularla. I found that the burrow was about four feet long, 

 and the nest was only about two feet from the surface of the 

 ground. The nest was made in a cavity of the ground of about a 

 foot in diameter, well filled with dry, soft horse dung, bits of old 

 blanket, and fur of a coyote {^Canis latrans) that I had killed a 

 few days before. One of the parent birds was on the nest, and 

 I captured it. It had no intention of leaving the nest, even 

 when entirely uncovered with the shovel and exposed to the 

 open air. It fought bravely with beak and claws. I found 

 seven young ones, perhaps eight or ten days old, well covered 

 with down, but without any feathers. The whole nest, as well 

 as the birds (old and young), swarmed with fleas. It was the 

 filthiest nest I ever saw. In the passage leading to it there were 

 small scraps of dead animals, such as pieces of the skin of the 

 antelope, half dried and half putrified, the skin of the coyote, 

 etc. ; and near the nest were the remains of a snake that I had 

 killed two days before, a large Coluber., two feet long. The 

 birds had begun at the snake's head and had picked off the 

 flesh clean from the vertebra and ribs for about one half its 

 length; the other half of the snake was entire. The material 

 on which the young birds rested was at least three inches deep. 

 There are very few birds that carry more rubbish into their 

 nests than the Atliene; and even the Vultures are not much 

 more filthy. I am satisfied that the A. cunieidaria lays a larger 

 number of eggs than is attributed to it in Dr. Brewer's book 

 (four). I have frequently seen, late in the season, six, seven 

 or eight young birds standing around the mouth of a burrow, 

 isolated from others in such a manner that I could not suppose 

 that they belonged to two or more families.' 



"The notes of the Burrowing Owl are peculiar. The birds 



