190 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



bow to each other by the hour. Then they would race around and 

 pop up and down the hole like jack-in-the-boxes. Of course 

 their burrowing operations under ground could only be guessed 

 at. but one of the owls, presumably the female, remained below 

 most of the day, and when she appeared, presented such a worn 

 and dirty appearance that it seemed probable she was sitting. Her 

 partner took up his station on the pile of earth near the entrance 

 and dutifully swore at any one who intruded, or promptly con- 

 veyed mice and sparrows into the mysterious cavern where, week 

 after week, his mate was patiently incubating in the darkness. 



If stared at intently, he would slowly back down, until in the 

 darkness of the burrow, nothing was distinguishable but his two 

 round, shining, yellow eyes. Again wdien not frightened, he 

 would twist his head around sideways in a vertical direction, until 

 he looked at the observer with head completely reversed. This 

 was quite a common trick, but why he wanted an upside-down 

 view of things, was more than I could ever explain. One day a 

 board was placed across the entrance of the burrow, as an experi- 

 ment, but the next morning the little owl w^as standing beside a 

 new hole higher up, and venting all the wTath in his diminutive 

 body on the innocent piece of wood. 



Week after week passed and the faithful owl-wife grew more 

 and more emaciated and bedraggled, until, fearing that she would 

 die, it was decided to dig out her secret. So both owls were shut 

 out of the burrow and a layer of earth removed, then a second 

 and third, until the whole excavation was exposed to view, and it 

 was found that the owls had used their limited amount of earth in 

 the most ingenious possible way. The burrow-, as a whole, re- 

 sembled a descending spiral. It led obliquely downw^ard from 

 the entrance, then curved around to the left, and about five feet 

 from the mouth, widened into a circular chamber, evidently in 

 use as a dining-room, as the floor was covered with scraps of dried 

 meat and feathers. The tunnel, which was almost circular in 

 section, wnth hard-packed walls, extended about five feet further, 

 describing a large, gradually descending circle in its course, until 

 it crossed under the upper portion of the burrow, near the en- 

 trance. At the extreme end w^as the nest, merely a second circular 

 chamber containing two white eggs, laid on the bare clay, with a 

 few scattered pebbles around them. These pebbles were evidently 

 the cause of all the trouble, for each egg had a little nick in the 

 side, made, no doubt, by a pebble falling from the roof, and so 

 rendering useless the four week's incubation of the parent owl ; 

 the embryos within the eggs being completely dry. 



