AVES STRIGID^. 7OI 



haps of all the owls the most diurnal in their habits and extracts from 

 those who have met with them are appended, telling of the life and breed- 

 ing habits. 



O. V. Aplin (Ibis, 1894, pp. 193-194) says that the burrowing owl was 

 "common, breeding in the open camp, but usually at no great distance 

 from a group of rocks, on which, and the stunted shrubs among them, they 

 like to sit. The burrows are sometimes in the open ground, sometimes 

 at the foot of, or partly underneath, a boulder. This little owl is 'brava.' 

 Upon any intrusion on its haunts it launches itself into the air and hovers 

 like a kestril, uttering loud, sharp, rapid, hawk-like cries, and often it will 

 swoop down in a menacing way. With a dog they are especially fierce. 

 I have known a bird repeatedly strike at an old terrier which used to 

 accompany me on shorter excursions, to his great irritation and disgust. 

 The owl would sail gently along, and as it passed over his back (always 

 approaching from the rear), just drop its legs and claw his back, or even 

 his ears. The old dog used to spring up into the air with angry barks and 

 snaps at his tormentor — by that time safe up aloft again. Although the 

 pluckiest dog alive, he could not deal with this aerial enemy, and used to 

 come at last to my feet to escape the annoyance. I have, as it grew dusk, 

 known the owl to strike him when he was only four or five paces from 

 where I stood. Some broods were hatched before and about Christmas 

 (I saw fledged young in the nest at the Rio Negro on the i8th December), 

 and early in February the whole family used to sit about on the rocks, 

 bushes, or camp. The young numbered from two to five. But some 

 appeared to be nesting (again ?) at that date, and I knew of one place 

 where there were four used kennels close together. The mouths of the 

 kennels are strewn with the remains of small reptiles, beetles, locusts, etc. 

 The owls do much good by eating the isoca beetles, remains of great num- 

 bers being found ; most of them are the females. When the owls eat the 

 male beetles they snip off and reject the thorax with its powerful horns ; 

 this part is not found in the pellets, but lying separate. The call of this 

 owl is 'coc-coqitoV or ' coc-co-ivoy,' the last syllable drawn out; sometimes 

 it is 'cocquoi-o.' This calling takes place at sundown, when you can hear 

 the owls all about the camp. The serenade over, they begin to feed in 

 earnest (for though they sit about outside and are quite at ease all day, 

 they feed chiefly after sundown), often hovering like kestrils over the camp 

 and about the trees and plantations of the quinta. Sometimes they 

 scream harshly at night." 



