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TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



is attributed to it in Dr. Brewer's book (four). I have 

 frequently seen, late in the season, six, seven or eight 

 young birds standings around the mouth of a burrow, iso- 

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

 that they belonged to two or more families.' . . 



^^ The notes of the Burrow^ing Owl are peculiar. The 

 birds 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 sel- 

 dom 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 skim- 

 ming low over the surface of the ground, in a rapid, easy, 

 and rather graceful manner. They live chiefly upon in- 

 sects, especially grasshoppers ; 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 specimens in a few 

 minutes, and, I fear, left some others to languish and die 

 in their holes. As commonly observed, perched on one of 



