THE BURROWING OWL. 25 
to the rump.* While nestling, they make a clutter- 
ing or croaking noise, similar to frogs which may 
be heard during the whole night on the shores of the 
Bahama and Bermuda Islands, and the coasts of Cuba 
and Florida, where they abound. Forster says they 
bury themselves by thousands in holes under ground, 
where they rear their young and lodge at night; and 
at New-Zealand, the shores resound with the noise, 
similar to the clucking of hens or the croaking of 
frogs, which they send forth from their concealment. 
The burrowing owl (Strix cunicularia, Moutna), 
found in some of the warmer districts of America, 
is another mining bird. ‘In the trans-Mississippian 
territories of the United States,” says Charles Bona- 
parte, “‘ the burrowing owl resides exclusively in the 
villages of the marmot or prairie dog, whose exca- 
vations are so commodious as to render it unneces- 
sary that our bird should dig for himself, as he is said 
to do in other parts of the world, where no burrow- 
ing animals exist. These villages are very numer- 
ous, and variable in their extent, sometimes covering 
only a few acres, and at others spreading over the 
surface of the country for miles together. They are 
composed of slightly-elevated mounds, having the 
form of a truncated cone, about two feet in width at 
base, and seldom rising as high as eighteen inches 
above the surface of the soil. The entrance is placed 
either at the top or on the side, and the whole mound 
is beaten down externally, especially at the summit, 
resembling a much-used footpath.” 
From the entrance, the passage into the mound 
descends vertically for one or two feet, and is thence 
continued obliquely downward until it terminates 
in an apartment, within which the industrious mar- 
mot constructs, on the approach of the cold season, 
the comfortable cell for his winter’s sleep. This 
cell, which is composed of fine dry grass, is globular 
* Pennant, a il., 434. 
