132 PAMPAS cMAt. 



defence, because the rubbish is chiefly placed above the mouth 

 of the burrow, which enters the ground at a very small inclina- 

 tion. No doubt there must exist some good reason ; but the 

 inhabitants of the country are quite ignorant of it. The only 

 fact which I know analogous to it, is the habit of that extra- 

 ordinaiy Australian bird, the Calodera maculata, which makes 

 an elegant vaulted passage of twigs for playing in, and which 

 collects near the spot land and sea shells, bones, and the 

 feathers of birds, especially brightly coloured ones. Mr. Gould, 

 who has described these facts, informs me, that the natives, 

 when they lose any hard object, search the playing passages, 

 and he has known a tobacco-pipe thus recovered. 



The little owl (Athene cunicularia), which has been so 

 often mentioned, on the plains of Buenos Ayres exclusively 

 inhabits the holes of the bizcacha ; but in Banda Oriental it 

 is its own workman. During the open day, but more especially 

 in the evening, these birds may be seen in every direction 

 standing frequently by pairs on the hillock near their burrows. 

 If disturbed they either enter the hole, or, uttering a shrill 

 harsh cry, move with a remarkably undulatory flight to a 

 short distance, and then turning round, steadily gaze at their 

 pursuer. Occasionally in the evening they may be heard 

 hooting. I found in the stomachs of two which I opened 

 the remains of mice, and I one day saw a small snake killed 

 and carried away. It is said that snakes are their common 

 prey during the daytime. I may here mention, as showing on 

 what various kinds of food owls subsist, that a species killed 

 among the islets of the Chonos Archipelago had its stomach 

 full of good-sized crabs. In India ^ there is a fishing genus of 

 owls, which likewise catches crabs. 



In the evening we crossed the Rio Arrecife on a simple 

 raft made of barrels lashed together, and slept at the post- 

 house on the other side. I this day paid horserhire for thirty- 

 one leagues ; and although the sun was glaring hot I was but 

 little fatigued. When Captain Head talks of riding fifty 

 leagues a day, I do not imagine the distance is equal to 150 

 English miles. At all events, the thirty-one leagues was only 

 y6 miles in a straight line, and in an open country I should think 

 four additional miles for turnings would be a sufficient allowance. 



1 Journal of Asiatic Soc. vol. v. p. 363. 



