BURROWING-OWL 39 



wings, and sometimes, losing their balance, fall 

 prostrate and flutter on the ground. If the animal 

 captured be small they proceed after a while to 

 despatch it with the beak ; if large they usually rise 

 laboriously from the ground and fly to some distance 

 with it, thus giving time for the wounds inflicted 

 by the claws to do their work. 



At sunset the Owls begin to hoot ; a short followed 

 by a long note is repeated many times with an interval 

 of a second of silence. There is nothing dreary or 

 solemn in this performance ; the voice is rather 

 soft and sorrowful, somewhat resembling the lowest 

 notes of the flute in sound. In. spring they hoot a 

 great deal, many individuals responding to each 

 other. 



In the evening they are often seen hovering like a 

 Kestrel at a height of forty feet above the surface, and 

 continuing to do so fully a minute or longer without 

 altering their position. They do not drop the whole 

 distance at once on their prey, but descend vertically, 

 tumbling and fluttering as if wounded, to within ten 

 yards of the earth, and then, after hovering a few 

 seconds more, glide obliquely on to it. They prey on 

 every living creature not too large to be overcome by 

 them. Sometimes when a mouse is caught they tear 

 off the head, tail, and feet, devouring only the body. 

 The hind quarters of toads and frogs are almost in- 

 variably rejected ; and inasmuch as these are the 

 most fleshy and succulent parts, this is a strange 

 and unaccountable habit. They make an easy con- 

 quest of a snake eighteen inches long, and kill it by 



