188 Birds I Have Kept. 



of the bird, is generally placed in the darkest corner it can 

 find; a hole far down in the trunk of a tree, in a ruined 

 ■wall, the dark inside of a church steeple, or some similar spot, 

 to which the obnoxious rays of the sun can not very readily 

 penetrate: instances, however, are on record where an Owl 

 has appropriated to its own use the deserted tenement of a 

 Book or a Magpie, and has even dived down into the bowels 

 of the earth, and laid its four white eggs, and reared its 

 callow brood in a convenient rabbit-burrow; but these eire the 

 exceptions to the general rule that is observed by these wise- 

 looking and really sagacious birds in their choice of a nesting- 

 place, at least in the old world, for in the new there is an 

 Owl that never makes use of any other than a subterranean 

 abode. 



This curious bird, of which I possess a fine example, is the 

 Prairie Owl, which is also named Coquimbo and Burrowing 

 Owl; its scientific names are various, that of Athene cunicularia 

 being a trifle less cacophonous than some of the others that 

 have been imposed upon it: it is not a large bird, about 

 eleven inches in length, but stands upon long legs, which are 

 closely covered, down nearly to the tips of the toes, with 

 short feathers so thin and. narrow they are more like hair: 

 the expanse of wing is considerable, quite two feet, and the 

 general appearance of the creature indicative of large capacity 

 for noiseless and powerful flight. 



A native of several parts of America, many strange stories 

 are related of the Burrowing Owl: how it shares the dwellings 

 of the marmot amicably with no less a formidable reptile than 

 the rattlesnake, but does not prey upon the offspring of its 

 hosts, or neighbours, preferring to make its repasts off the 

 many coleopterous and other insects that abound in the regions 

 ■where it has taken up its dwelling; all of which may be 

 received eum grano: at least in captivity it eats birds and 

 mice, as well as insects, and does not by any means disdain 

 a slice of "cats' meat" cold. 



