238 BRITISH AUD EUROPEAN BIRDS, 



'Midst this babel, the Monarch, extending his wing, 

 Commanded the Warblers in sequence to sing. 

 In a moment was silence ; the restless were still ; 

 At distance was heard, in sweet murmurs, the rill. 

 The Redbreast looked pleas'd, and began with a 

 twittering; 

 That excited of Folly an insolent tittering. 

 But he soon became silent as thus o'er the soul, 

 The warbler's soft notes with much melody stole. 



the trans-Mississipian territories this owl resides exclusively in 

 the burrows of the Marmot or Pairie dog; whether at tlie same 

 time and in tlie same burrow with the said dog we are not ex- 

 actly informed ; although in other districts, as in St. Domingo, 

 it digs itself a burrow two feet deep, in which the functions of 

 niditication, &c. are performed. Its food is said to be insects ; 

 it flies about by day ; its notes are cheh, cheh^ repeated several 

 times in rapid succession. Length nine inches and half j extent 

 two feet. Bill horn colour, the lower mandible strongly notched ; 

 iris bright yellow; the capistrum before the eyes terminates in 

 black rigid bristles as long as the bill. General colour of the plu- 

 mage a light burnt-umber, spotted with a whitish tinge; beneath 

 whitish; inferior tail coverts are immaculate white; eggs two, 

 white, size of the dove's. See a continuation of Wilson's Ame- 

 rican Ornithology by Prince Charles Buonaparte. 



Those who like tales abounding in the horrible, will find one 

 to their taste in Blackwood's Magazine for July, 1826, entitled 

 the Owl : the following are the first four lines of it : 

 '' There sat au owl in an old oak tree, 

 Whooping very merrily ; 

 He was considering, as well he might. 

 Ways and means for a supper to-night." 



I particularly advise those to read it who may not be quite 

 convinced of the impropriety of cruelty to animals. 



