Strange Friendship. 281 
Like Scops asio—the Red Owl—he leads a solitary exist- 
ence, save on the approach of warm weather, when the sexes 
are discovered together, or are heard calling one to the other. 
Mating commences early in April, and about the middle of 
the month the birds have located their nests in the hollow of 
a tree, about twenty feet from the ground, where the female 
lays her complement of eggs. The entrance to the hole is 
very small, scarcely two inches in diameter. Upon the 
female devolves the whole work of incubation, although the 
male takes a hand in raising the young. The latter leave 
the nest about the first week of May, and when disturbed 
make a noise that sounds like a dog sniffling the air, which, 
when heard, especially at night in heavy timber, is quite 
certain to startle one and make him fancy a bear or some 
such animal up a tree near by. 
Some years ago there lived in the hollow of an oak tree, 
not far from Germantown, a common Chickaree Squirrel— 
Sciturus Hudsonius—with this little Owl as his sole com- 
panion. This association reminded me of the connection 
of the burrowing owl of the West with the singular settle- 
ments of the prairie dog, the life-relations of the two creatures 
being really intimate in very many localities, although the 
owls are simply attracted to the villages of the prairie-dogs 
as the most suitable places for shelter and nidification, where 
they find eligible ready-made burrows and are saved the 
trouble of digging for themselves. Community of interest 
makes them gregarious to an extent unusual among rapa- 
cious birds, while the exigencies of life on the plains cast 
their lot with the rodents. That the owls live at ease in 
the settlements, and on familiar terms with their four-footed 
neighbors, is an undoubted fact, but that they have any 
intimate domestic relations is open to question. That the 
quadruped and the birds are often seen to scuttle at each 
other’s heels into the same hole when alarmed is no proof 
that they live together, for in such a case the two merely 
seek the nearest shelter, independently of each other. In the 
