182 



THE DESERT 



Hats and 

 owls. 



The burrow- 

 ing owl. 



owl is perhaps misnamed, though not misplaced. 

 There is no evidence whatever, that I have ever 

 seen or heard, to show that he burrows. What 

 happens is that he crawls into some hole that is 

 already burrowed instead of a cave or recess in 

 the rocks. A prairie-dog or badger hole is his 

 preference. That the place has inhabitants, 

 including the tarantula and (it is said) the rat- 

 tlesnake, does not bother the owl. He walks 

 in with his mate and speedily makes himself at 

 home. How the different families get on to- 

 gether can be imagined by one person as well as 

 by another. They do not seem to pay any at- 

 tention to each other so far as I have observed. 

 Ordinarily the desert animals, birds, and rep- 

 tiles agree to no such truce. They are at war 

 from the start. I do not know that the owls, 

 the bats, the night-hawks have any special 

 equipment for carrying on their part of the 

 war. Sometimes I have fancied they had larger 

 eyes than is usual with their kinds outside of 

 the desert ; but I have no proof of this. Per- 

 haps it is like the speculation as to whether the 

 buzzard sees or scents the carrion that he dis- 

 covers so readily hardly amenable to proof. 



All of the air-birds are strikingly developed 

 in the wings and equally undeveloped in the 



