314 HISTORY OF THE 



do not 'hoot,' nor is there anything lugubrious or foreboding 

 in their cry. Sometimes they chuckle, chatter and squeal in an 

 odd way, as if they had caught a habit of barking from the 

 'dogs' they live with, and were trying to imitate the sound; 

 but their nocturnal cry is curiously similar to that of the Rain 

 Crow or Cuckoo of America — so much so, that more than one 

 observer has been deceived. They scream hoarsely when 

 wounded and caught, though this is but seldom, since, if any life 

 remains, they scramble quickly into a hole, and are not easy to 

 recover. The flight is perfectly noiseless, like that of other 

 Owls, owing to the peculiar downy texture of the plumage. 

 By day they seldom fly far from the entrance of their burrow, 

 and rarely, if ever, mount in the air. I never saw one on the 

 wing more than a few moments at a time, just long enough for 

 it to pass from one hillock to another, as it does by skimming 

 low over the surface of the ground, in a rapid, easy, and rather 

 graceful manner. They live chiefly upon insects, especially grass- 

 hoppers; they also feed upon lizards, as I once determined by 

 dissection, and there is no doubt that young prairie dogs furnish 

 them many a meal. Under ordinary circumstances, they are 

 not very shy or diflicult to procure; I once secured several spec- 

 imens in a few minutes, and, I fear, left some others to languish 

 and die in their holes. As commonly observed, perched on one 

 of the innumerable little eminences that mark a dog town, amid 

 their curious surroundings, they present a spectacle not easily 

 forgotten. Their figure is peculiar; with their long legs and 

 short tail, the element of the grotesque is never wanting. It is 

 hard to say whether they look most ludicrous as they stand 

 stiffly erect and motionless, or when they suddenly turn tail to 

 duck into the hole, or when engaged in their various antics. 

 Bolt upright, on what may be imagined their rostrum, they gaze 

 about with a bland and self-satisfled but earnest air, as if about 

 to address an audience upon a subject of great pith and moment. 

 They suddenly bow low, with profound gravity, and, rising ab- 

 ruptly, they begin to twitch their faces and roll their eyes about 

 in the most mysterious manner, gesticulating wildly, every now 

 and then bendina; forward till the breast almost touches the 



