42 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 6-No. 6. 



and devoured later ; I was surprised to see 

 how easily they killed these squirrels, 

 which made scarcely any resistance. Aside 

 from these, their diet seems to consist of 

 different species of mice, pocket gophers 

 as well as of crickets, grasshoppers and 

 occasionally even of fish. It is astonish- 

 ing how much one of these Owls will eat 

 in a day, amounting often to consider- 

 ably more than their own weight. 



About here they occupy the abandoned 

 burrows of badgers and ground-squirrels. 

 The latter are enlarged to suit their re- 

 quirements. They are easily tamed and 

 make interesting but rather filthy pets. 

 When enraged at any strange object, these 

 birds will puff themselves out by raising 

 their feathers, throw themselves backwards 

 in the manner of a wounded Hawk or Fal- 

 con, and striking out with their talons if 

 within reach of the object, usually emitting 

 at the same time a hissing, rattling noise, 

 which resembles the warning note of our 

 rattlesnake so much, that it cannot be told 

 apart, and is apt to deceive the closest ob- 

 server. I have had this demonstrated 

 more than once, by asking an assistant, 

 who was not aware that these Owls could 

 make this peculiar noise, to reach into a 

 partially opened burrow, which I knew con- 

 tained one of these birds and eggs, to get 

 the latter for me, and was invariably told 

 after he had inserted his hand and with- 

 drawn it in a hurry, "Captain, there is a 

 rattlesnake in that hole," and nothing 

 would convince the man that such was not 

 the case, till I exposed the end of the bur- 

 row, and at the same time the Owl, to 

 his view, but no rattlesnake. This un- 

 questionably accounts for the popular be- 

 lief amongst frontiers men generally, as 

 well as among some naturalists, that 

 rattlesnakes, prairie dogs and these Owls 

 live in the same domicile. That they 

 should be able to kill a full grown prairie 

 dog seems scarcely probable, but they un- 

 doubtedbly kill and live on the young ones. 

 I have examined a great many hurrows oc- 

 cupied by these Owls and have never found 



any other living animals in any of them 

 (always excepting vermin, such as fleas 

 and flies), certainly no snakes or rodents, 

 and I believe that they would make equally 

 short work of the former as of the latter. 

 It is possible that these birds capture a 

 small bird now and then, but I have not as 

 yet had any evidence whatever that they 

 do. In the western agricultural districts 

 this owl deserves the fullest protection, 

 living as it does on the worst foes the 

 farmers have to content against, and in 

 favorable localities it will increase very 

 rapidly. 



According to my observations this little 

 Owl is the most prolific of the whole family 

 found in the U. S. The usual number of 

 eggs laid, being nine, although ten and 

 eleven in a set are not un frequent, and I 

 have heard from one of my correspondents 

 that he took a set containing not less than 

 twelve eggs this spring, near Carson, 

 Nevada. They are most devoted parents 

 and allow themselves rather to be captured 

 than to abandon their treasures. I think 

 both parents assist in incubation, which 

 lasts about fourteen days. In this vicinity 

 they commence laying about April 15th, and 

 by the end of May the young Owlets may of- 

 ten be seen sitting in front of their bur- 

 rows. In the various localities in which I 

 have examined the burrows of these owls, 

 I have never found any other material in 

 the chamber occupied by the nest, than 

 finely broken up dry horse or cow dung. 

 This is scattered about from one to two 

 inches deep at the end of the chamber, 

 which is somewhat enlarged, and on this 

 mass the eggs are deposited, and these, if 

 a full set, are usually placed in the shape 

 of a horse shoe. I am informed that in 

 California these Owls sometimes construct 

 their nests out of dry grass, but I have 

 never met with any so constructed. 



Their eggs, like those of the balance of 

 the family, are white, rather more pointed 

 and glossy however than Owls' eggs gen- 

 erally are, and in a large series almost any 

 shape may be found from globular to pyr- 



