ORNITHOLOGIST 



AND 



OOLOGIST. 



$1.00 per 

 Annum. 



Established March 18".'), 

 Joseph M. Wade, Editor and Publisher. 



10 Cents 

 fi'ingle Copy. 



VOL. VI. 



NORWICH, CONN., AUGUST, 1881. 



NO. 6 



Burrowing Owl. 



Spcotytu rHnlcnlaria hijpo(ji.i:a. (Iiidgu\) 

 CAP. CHAS. BENDIRE, U. S. A. 



This little Owl is an exceedingly abun- 

 dant summer resident in the vicinity of 

 Walla Walla, W. T., and as there seems to 

 be some conflict of opinion regarding its 

 life-history and general habits, as handed 

 down to us by our earlier ornithological 

 observers, I have taken advantage of the 

 many excellent opportunities offered me, 

 to carefully study its habits in this region. 



It is well known that this species is both 

 diurnal and nocturnal, but it is particularly 

 active in the early portion of the evening- 

 and I believe that it then seeks most of its 

 food. Numbers can be seen hovering in 

 the air in the manner of Sparrow-hawks, on 

 the lookout for the smaller rodents, etc., 

 during the early twilight, whenever they 

 are at all common. During the day-time 

 they are generally found close to their 

 burrows and when not molested, allow 

 themselves to be approached very closely. 

 In this vicinity their arrival from their 

 winter haunts varies generally from the 1st 

 to the 10 th of March, and by the middle 

 of the month they become very abundant. 

 The males appear to precede the f emal es 

 about a week in their arrival, as the first 

 ten specimens shot by me, invariably 

 proved to be males. 



During the pairing season their peculiar 

 love note, resembling that of the European 

 Cuckoo (C canorus) can be heard in all 

 directions about sundcwn, and is kept up 

 for an hour or more. This note is only 

 uttered while the bird is at rest sitting in 

 front of its l)urrow ; while flying about 



they use another chattering sort of note, 

 and when alarmed a short, shrill, tzip. 



As this little Owl inhabits a large extent of 

 country on both sides of the Rocky Moun- 

 taius,it is quite possible that its habits may 

 differ somewhat in widely separated re- 

 gions, and what may hold good here, may 

 not eastward of the Mountains. 



I believe this species is generally con 

 sidered as a peaceful and harmless bird, 

 living in perfect harmony with the jirairie 

 dogs and ground squirrels, whose abandon- 

 ed burrows it inhabits. My observations, 

 very carefully made, and covering several 

 seasons, lead me to take a different view 

 as far as its peacefulness is concerned. 

 Taking the small size of this Owl into con- 

 sideration I must certainly call it an ex- 

 tremely pkicky and aggressive bird, as full 

 of courage as any of our Falcons, as it has 

 not the least hesitation to attack rodents 

 larger and heavier by far then itself. 



In this vicinity these Owls seem to live 

 to a great extent on that jDest of the far- 

 mer, Tomt^send's Ground Squirrel, Sper- 

 mophilus richardsoni townseudi {Allen,) 

 which would be much more destructive if 

 not kept down by these Owls. In order to 

 satisfy myself that they were actually able 

 to kill adult s(piirrels, I tra^Dped several 

 and placed them alive (they had been 

 caught in a wire trap and were not at all in- 

 jured) in a room with a pair of these Owls. 

 As soon as noticed by the latter one of 

 them would fasten its talons into the 

 squirrel's back.and with a few well directed 

 strokes of its beak, break the vertebrae of 

 the neck, and eat the head off the squirrel, 

 often before the latter was quite dead, yet, 

 the remainder of the body was usually left 



