1 84 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



Wilson says, 



" The usual food of this species is said to be hares, grouse, rabbits, 

 ducks, mice, and even carrion. Unlike most of his tribe, he hunts 

 by day as well as by twilight, and is particularly fond of frequenting 

 the shores and banks of shallow rivers, over the surface of which he 

 slowly sails, or sits on a rock a little raised above the water, watching 

 for fish." 



Nuttall draws this pretty pen-picture : 



" His white robe renders him scarcely discernible from the over- 

 whelming snows where he reigns, like the boreal spirit of the storm. 

 His loud, hollow, barking growl, 'wAowA, 'whowh, 'whowh hah, hah, 

 hah, hah, and other dismal cries, sound like the unearthly ban of 

 Cerberus ; and heard amidst a region of cheerless solitude, his lonely 

 and terrific voice augments rather than relieves the horrors of the 

 scene." 



The beautiful Hawk-owl is another arctic bird that 

 but rarely comes even to Southern New England, 

 but which does come even to New Jersey. As the 

 name indicates, the bird is as much a hawk as an 

 owl, a connecting link, as it were, and this has the 

 more significance in that the bird is diurnal. 



In the West there occurs in great abundance the 

 Burrowing-owl, or, as Dr. Coues states it, 



" It is the only bird of its family inhabiting, in any numbers, the 

 entirely treeless regions of the West, and may be considered charac- 

 teristic of the plains. Wherever it can find shelter in the holes of 

 such animals as wolves, foxes, and badgers, and especially of the 

 various species of marmot squirrels, there it is found in abundance, 

 and in not a few instances small colonies are observed living apart 

 from their ordinary associates in holes apparently dug by themselves." 



J. K. Lord, in his " Naturalist in British Columbia," 

 remarks, 



