AVES STRIGID^. 703 



tenacious of the spot they live in, and are not, like the Pipit and Spurred 

 Lapwing, driven out by cultivation. When the fields are ploughed up, 

 they burrow on the borders of the ditches, and sit on the wayside fences, 

 and are so tame that a rider can easily knock them down with his whip. 

 Several pairs live near my house ; and when a person rides up to within 

 three or four yards of a burrow the birds only snap and hiss and ruffle up 

 their feathers, refusing to fly away. 



"Occasionally the owls are seen preying by day, especially when any- 

 thing passes near, offering the chance of an easy capture ; often I have 

 amused myself throwing bits of earth near one as it sat by its kennel ; for 

 the bird will immediately give chase, only discovering its mistake when 

 the stone is firmly clutched in its talons. When rearing their young 

 they are perhaps quite as active by day as by night. On the hot days of 

 November multitudes of two large species Scavabcpits appear; and the 

 bulky bodies and noisy bungling flight of these beetles invite the owls to 

 pursuit ; and on every side they are seen chasing and striking down the 

 beetles, and tumbling upon them in the grass. Owls have a peculiar 

 manner of taking their prey : they grapple it so tightly in their talons that 

 they totter and strive to steady themselves by throwing out their wings 

 this way and that, and, often losing their balance, fall prostrate, and flut- 

 ter on the ground. If the animal captured be small, they proceed after a 

 while to dispatch it with the beak ; if large, they usually rise laboriously 

 from the earth, and fly to some distance with it, thus giving time for the 

 wounds inflicted with their claws to do their work. 



"How remarkable it is that the TcBuioptera (so different in structure 

 from owls) should resemble them in the peculiar manner of seizing their 

 prey! 



"The Tanioptera frequently darts upon a large insect on the ground, 

 and, grasping it with its feet, flutters and totters precisely like an owl. 

 This habit I have observed in four species of Tcenioptera. 



"At sunset the Burrowing Owls begin to hoot; a short followed by a 

 long note is repeated many times, with an interval of a second of silence. 

 There is nothing dreary or solemn in this preformance ; but it is rather 

 soft and sorrowful, somewhat resembling the lowest notes of the flute in 

 sound. In spring they hoot a great deal, many birds responding to each 

 other. 



"In the evening they are often seen hovering at a height of forty yards 



