190 NEW “YORK (ZOOLOGICAL S@CIBIY: 
bow to each other by the hour. Then they would race around and 
pop up and down the hole like jack-in-the-boxes. Of course 
their burrowing operations under ground could only be guessed 
at, but one of the owls, presumably the female, remained below 
most of the day, and when she appeared, presented such a worn 
and dirty appearance that it seemed probable she was sitting. Her 
partner took up his station on the pile of earth near the entrance 
and dutifully swore at any one who intruded, or promptly con- 
veyed mice and sparrows into the mysterious cavern where, week 
after week, his mate was patiently incubating in the darkness. 
If stared at intently, he would slowly back down, until in the 
darkness of the burrow, nothing was distinguishable but his two 
round, shining, yellow eyes. Again when not frightened, he 
would twist his head around sideways in a vertical direction, until 
he looked at the observer with head completely reversed. This 
was quite a common trick, but why he wanted an upside-down 
view of things, was more than I could ever explain. One day a 
board was placed across the entrance of the burrow, as an experi- 
ment, but the next morning the little owl was standing beside a 
new hole higher up, and venting all the wrath in his diminutive 
body on the innocent piece of wood. 
Week after week passed and the faithful owl-wife grew more 
and more emaciated and bedraggled, until, fearing that she would 
die, it was decided to dig out her secret. So both owls were shut 
out of the burrow and a layer of earth removed, then a second 
and third, until the whole excavation was exposed to view, and it 
was found that the owls had used their limited amount of earth in 
the most ingenious possible way. The burrow, as a whole, re- 
sembled a descending spiral. It led obliquely downward from 
the entrance, then curved around to the left, and about five feet 
from the mouth, widened into a circular chamber, evidently in 
use as a dining-room, as the floor was covered with scraps of dried 
meat and feathers. The tunnel, which was almost circular in 
section, with hard-packed walls, extended about five feet further, 
describing a large, gradually descending circle in its course, until 
it crossed under the upper portion of the burrow, near the en- 
trance. At the extreme end was the nest, merely a second circular 
chamber containing two white eggs, laid on the bare clay, with a 
few scattered pebbles around them. These pebbles were evidently 
the cause of all the trouble, for each egg had a little nick in the 
side, made, no doubt, by a pebble falling from the roof, and so 
rendering useless the four week’s incubation of the parent owl; 
the embryos within the eggs being completely dry. 
