22 
THE WILSON BULLETIN— March, 1922 
the rainy season the owls could not maintain themselves where 
the young are reared. That some new burrows are made in the 
Spring- I have positive evidence but this would naturally follow 
any increase in the population of a colony. Fresh digging at 
an old burrow might indicate house-cleaning which I believe 
was usually the case but 1 was not on hand early enough in 
the season to determine as to their place of residence in the 
early winter nor where they put up during the rainy season. 
It is declared by a few people that Steotyto does not excavate a 
home for himself but makes use of the burrow of the so-called 
Gopher ( Test ado Carolina), the rather common highland Tor- 
toise. This is without foundation in fact so far as my experience 
went. The two animals do not frequent the same sort of en- 
vironment and The character and form of their burrows differ 
materially. Of course the “ Happy Family ” myth is sometimes 
advanced and warnings given of the probable presence of rattle- 
snakes as well as of the turtles. Needless to state neither of 
these co-partners was ever seen at or in the same sort of sur- 
roundings as were sought by the owls. 
The most striking characteristic of these birds was extreme, 
gentle fearlessness. With the first pair under intimate in- 
spection the bird believed to be the female usually permitted my 
approach within four paces. Not infrequently l walked rapidly 
within live or six steps of the entrance to the burrow, where 
this bird sat staring at me with her large clear-yellow rings, 
then by slowly moving I could frequently stand within six feet 
of the bird and carry on a somewhat one-sided conservation, but 
which at times was responded to with a rather musical, throaty, 
rippling trill that resembled the mellow “ cult - cult - cult - cuh ” 
spring call of the Flicker when heard at a considerable dis- 
tance. The mandibles were not seen to move when this call 
was made but a flutter of the feathers of the throat was visible. 
The mate of this friendly bird would fly off when I came within 
about 30 yards of the mound whereon the pair were usually to 
be found. In most of the burrows observed both birds were 
seen at the entrance, and generally within a foot or two of 
each other. 
The first birds were seen February 19th and at their burrow 
no fresh earth had then been thrown out. On February 23rd 
a colony of six or eight pairs was visited and here was evidence 
of spring housecleaning. The old mounds were well packed 
down by rains and fresh earth thrown out. At this time and 
