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, MOLINA), 

 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, Brit. Zool., ii., 434. 



c 



