OWLS. 157 



returns to its underground dwelling, which consists of the 

 burrows of the marmot, or prairie-dog, an animal abounding 

 on the vast plains of the western part of the United States. 

 These burrows are called by the natives marmot villages, and 

 are so numerous and extensive, that they will sometimes 

 spread over the face of the country for miles together. If 

 disturbed, the Owls, which are usually seated near the 

 burrows, either fly off a little way, and settle again, or 

 descend into the holes, from whence it is no easy matter to 

 dislodge them." 



Another traveller, Captain Sir Francis Head, when tra- 

 velling over some immense plains in South America, called 

 the Pampas, fell in with them in company with the biscachos, 

 an animal much resembling the above-mentioned prairie- 

 dogs, of very singular appearance, nearly as large as badgers, 

 but their heads not unlike a rabbit's, except that they have 

 large bushy whiskers. In the evening, they sit outside these 

 holes, looking very serious, as if moralizing, thoughtful, and 

 grave. These holes were guarded in the day-time by two of 

 the above-mentioned little Owls, who were never an instant 

 away from their post. As strangers gallop by, there the 

 Owls continue to sit, looking at them, first full in the face, 

 and then at each other, moving their old-fashioned heads in 

 a manner which was quite ridiculous, when, as the riders 

 pass close to them, fear gets the better of their dignified 

 looks, and the*y both run into the biscachos' holes.* 



The next order which offers itself to our notice in the 

 tables of classification, is the 

 Passerine, subdivided into 

 seven tribes, the first of which 

 is the Crenirostral, from two 

 Latin words, signifying notch- 

 billed, as they are all more or 

 less indented or notched to- 

 wards the extremity, as in 

 the annexed figure. 



In the preceding order the same peculiarity, indeed, exists, 

 * HEAD'S Rvugh Notes. 



