158 Kennard, The Okaloacoochee Slough. L April 



largest that we saw measured forty by forty-four inches across, 

 and was only three inches in height. Some of them were very 

 conspicuous, while others were partly overgrown with grasses, and 

 we found one that was in the side of one of those "bull holes" 

 which here dot the prairie — holes pawed in the earth by bellicose 

 bulls. 



When the owls flew, they flew softly as all owls do, but rapidly 

 when they so desired, and frequently with high undulations and 

 succeeding dives. They never went a hundred yards from their 

 nests, and we could not drive them away from the vicinity. As 

 soon as we were through investigating their nests, the little birds 

 at once flew back to them, and showed a distress to which I was 

 only reconciled by the knowledge that they would doubtless soon 

 begin to rehabilitate some old burrow, of which there were plenty 

 in the vicinity. Once Tom and I discovered in the distance a 

 burrow from which little jets of sand were issuing with great fre- 

 quency and regularity, about three to the second, onto the mound 

 in front. One of the birds was just inside the mouth of the burrow, 

 apparently throwing the sand out backwards with his feet. 



The owls never seemed to sleep, day or night, at least I never 

 caught them at it, and once I went out on the prairie on a pitch 

 dark night at 3 a.m., in an effort to see if one particular pair was 

 at home, and blocked up the mouth of the burrow, only to find 

 them a few yards away, apparently as well able to take care of 

 themselves in the dark as in the daytime. 



On the 18th we found a slough at one end of which was a little 

 willow island, in which there were ten nests of Ward's Heron; 

 seven of them contained well grown young, and three had well 

 incubated eggs. Numbers of Boat-tailed Grackles were building 

 here, some of their nests two or three feet above the water among 

 the vines that hung pendant from the willows, while others were 

 fifteen feet high on the out-reaching branches of the willows them- 

 selves. Most of the nests were in process of construction, though 

 a few held an egg apiece, while one contained two eggs and another 

 three. There was a flock of "Curlew" or White Ibises here, to- 

 gether w T ith Louisiana and Little Blue Herons, and a number of 

 Yellow-crowned Night Herons. 



We were still in the turkey country and succeeded in picking up 



