ON THE BURROWING OWL. 



459 



Upon a wall at Layton I found a live beetle (Blaps obtusa) with 

 deep, wide, and irregular indentations in its elytra, arising apparently 

 from its having been pressed or jammed in somewhere. 



At Laytonstone there is a species of black beetle, the scientific name 

 of which I have not been able to ascertain, which is called by the col- 

 lectors about there the spider-beetle, from its being usually found in 

 the nests of spiders, which, according to their account, it preys upon. 



I found a common fly (Musca domestica) the other day, the legs 

 and body of which were so covered with a small red acarus as to 

 disable it in its flight; and upon Epping Forest I captured a small 

 white moth, similarly attacked ; and since then a friend has shown me 

 a larva, apparently that of the fox-moth (Lasiocampa rabi) to whose 

 body numbers of these parasites were adhering. 



Ants, it is said, find their way back to the place from whence they 

 came, by means of a peculiar smell which they leave behind them in 

 their course, and of this I, some weeks since, convinced myself by 

 rubbing the epidermis off the bark of a tree, up and down which they 

 were continually running. By doing so, I flung them into some con- 

 fusion, as they hesitated for some time to cross the part that had been so 

 treated, until one of them less scrupulous than the rest walked over it, 

 and then they followed. 



ON THE BURROWING OWL. 



BY R. H. Jj* 



I do not now recollect whether in your architecture of birds, you 

 have stated that the food of the burrowing owl, (Slrix cunicularia of 

 Molina, ) consists entirely of insects, but having seen it said in another 

 publication of the Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge, on the 

 authority of Charles Lucien Bonaparte, a naturalist of high authority, 

 that this was supposed to be the case, as on the examination of its 

 stomach, nothing but the parts of the hard wing cases of insects were 

 found, I would wish to record the fact of its being a feeder on other 

 birds, in your Magazine, where it will be more likely to secure the 

 attention of naturalists, than in the miscellany I am noticing. My 

 experience has been acquired during two years' travelling in St. Do- 



* Any other communication from so well informed a correspondent will be 

 highly acceptable. — Editor. 



