184 THE Birps AsBout Us. 
Wilson says,— 
“‘ The usual food of this species is said to be hares, grouse, rabbits, 
ducks, mice, and even carrion. Unlike most of his tribe, he hunts 
by day as well as by twilight, and is particularly fond of frequenting 
the shores and banks of shallow rivers, over the surface of which he 
slowly sails, or sits on a rock a little raised above the water, watching 
for fish.” 
Nuttall draws this pretty pen-picture : 
«« His white robe renders him scarcely discernible from the over- 
whelming snows where he reigns, like the boreal spirit of the storm. 
His loud, hollow, barking growl, ’whowh,’whowh,’whowh hah, hah, 
hah, hah, and other dismal cries, sound like the unearthly ban of 
Cerberus; and heard amidst a region of cheerless solitude, his lonely 
and terrific voice augments rather than relieves the horrors of the 
scene.” 
The beautiful Hawk-owl is another arctic bird that 
but rarely comes even to Southern New England, 
but which does come even to New Jersey. As the 
name indicates, the bird is as much a hawk as an 
owl, a connecting link, as it were, and this has the 
more significance in that the bird is diurnal. 
In the West there occurs in great abundance the 
Burrowing-owl, or, as Dr. Coues states it,— 
“Tt is the only bird of its family inhabiting, in any numbers, the 
entirely treeless regions of the West, and may be considered charac- 
teristic of the plains. Wherever it can find shelter in the holes of 
such animals as wolves, foxes, and badgers, and especially of the 
various species of marmot squirrels, there it is found in abundance, 
and in not a few instances small colonies are observed living apart 
from their ordinary associates in holes apparently dug by themselves.” 
J. K. Lord, in his “ Naturalist in British Columbia,” 
remarks,— 
