THE HAWKS. vo 
It lived in confinement two days, refusing to eat, and died from the effects 
of the wound. <A few days later a boy brought me a female owl, with five 
egos, that had been taken from her nest, five feet from the mouth of a bur- 
row that wound among the roots of a tree. 
“She was fierce in her cage, and fought with wings and beak, uttering all 
the while a shrill, prolonged note, resembling the sound produced by draw- 
ing a file across the teeth of a saw. I supplied her with eleven full-grown 
mice, which were deyoured during the first thirty-six hours of confinement. 
“T endeavored to ascertain if this species burrows its own habitation, but 
my observations of eight months failed to impress me with the belief that it 
does. I have conversed with intelligent persons who have been familiar 
with their habits, and never did I meet one that believed this bird to be its 
own laborer. It places a small nest of feathers at the end of some occu- 
pied or deserted burrow, as necessity demands, in which are deposited from 
two to five white eggs, which are nearly spherical in form, and are a little 
larger than the eggs of the domestic pigeon, 
“Tn the Banda Oriental, where the country is as fine, and the favorite food 
of the owl more plentifully distributed than upon the pampas, this bird is 
not common in comparison with the numbers found in the latter locality. 
The reason is obvious. The b/zeacha does not exist in the Banda Oriental, 
and consequently these birds have a poor chance for finding habitations. 
“On the pampas, where thousands upon thousands of 6¢zcachas undermine 
the soil, there, in their true locality, the traveller finds thousands of owls. 
Again, along the bases of the Andes, where the b/zcacha is rarely met with, 
we find only a few pairs. Does the hole, from which my bird was taken, 
appear to be the work of a bird or quadruped? The several works that I 
have been able to consult do not, in one instance, give personal observations 
relative to the burrowing propensities of this owl; from which fact, it will 
be inferred that it never has been caught in the act of burrowing.” 
Famiry Faucontip®. Eacues, Hawks. 
Of the OCtreznee, or Harrier Hawks, the Marsh Hawk of America and 
the Moor Harrier of Europe are good examples. The Harriers are active 
and constantly on the wing: they frequent healthy moors, foeey marshes, 
and low, flat grounds, over which they are almost continually flying. In 
hunting for their prey, they quarter the ground after the manner of the 
spaniel dog, and when they seize the object of their search (a small quad- 
ruped, bird, or reptile), they drop suddenly upon it, and clutch it in their 
talons. They build on the ground among ferns and rushes. 
The sub-family Falconine (Faleons and Hawks) is a large and interest- 
ing group. Among all the raptorial birds, none are more bold and daring 
