HABITS OF THE BURROWING OWL 233 



Sac county, told the writer that he had observed several Burrowing 

 Owls at various times in that county, most of them being seen south- 

 west of Wall Lake. One colony north of Lake View is on a gravel 

 knoll, the birds of this colony being found April 14, 1916, apparently- 

 digging a burrow, the hole being just large enough for the birds and 

 not as large as a badger hole. The new earth looking as though it 

 had been scratched out. Near this burrow Mr. Spurrell found a 

 small Leopard Frog. Pellets found near burrows at various times 

 contained "mostly wing coverts of various species of beetles, and in 

 one the skull and fur of a meadow mouse was found." 



Mr. Spurrell has observed that the young come to the mouth of 

 the burrow about the middle of July. The birds seem to be quite 

 locally distributed, but fairly common in these localities. 



Mr. A. F. Allen, editor of the Sioux City Journal, reports obser- 

 vations made by seven members of the Sioux City Bird Club on Sep- 

 tember 20, 1914, who visited a colony of three pairs of Burrowing 

 Owls about eight miles southeast of Sioux City, where these birds 

 had reared their young that summer in holes dug probably by "coy- 

 otes or other mammals" and on the "side of a hill the northwest ex- 

 posure." Mr. Allen says, "The owls migrate for the winter, and will 

 leave, according to their habit, about the first week in October." 



Those who have examined the nests of these birds agree that they 

 are very filthy, there usually being a litter of partly eaten and partly 

 decayed food about the burrow, and the nest itself is almost i^yar- 

 lably infested with fleas. As nesting material upon which the five to 

 eight, and occasionally ten or eleven eggs are deposited, dried horse 

 or cow dung is used, with a few grass stems, and occasionally other 

 substances. 



The eggs measure about 1.22 by 1.04 inches; they are pure white, 

 and subspherical in shape. 



