THE BURROWING OWL. 
house, for the purpose of shooting the owls. He had not taken 
his station long before he saw one of them flying out with a 
prize in its claws ; he pulled his trigger, and down came the 
poor bird ; but instead of finding the carcase of the young 
pigeon, he found an old rat, nearly dead. Waterton met with 
a similar proof. He was one evening sitting under a shed, 
watching for rats, when he killed a very large one as it was coming 
out of its hole, about ten yards distant, He did not immedi- 
ately go to take it up, hoping to get another shot ; when in a 
short time a barn-owl pounced down and flew away with it. 
THE BURRO WIHGr OWL. 
One of the most curious of the owl family is the burrowing 
owl of the Hew World. Abounding in the immense South 
American prairies is a little animal about the size of a badger, 
but with a head something resembling that of a rabbit, with 
large bushy whiskers. These animals are known as biscachos, 
and burrow in the ground just as rabbits do. “ In the evening,” 
says Sir Francis Head, in his “ Rough Hotes,” the biscachos sit 
outside these holes, looking very serious, as if moralizing, 
thoughtful, and grave. These holes were guarded in the day-time 
by two of the above-mentioned little owls, who were never an 
instant from their post. As strangers gallop up, there the owls 
continue to sit, looking at them, first full in the face and then 
at each other, moving their old-fashioned heads in a manner 
which was quite ridiculous, when, as the riders passed close to 
them, fear gets the better of their dignified looks, and they both 
run into the biscachos’ holes.” 
The burrowing owl is not nocturnal in its habits. The bright 
glare of the noon-day sun is as welcome to them as the moon to 
our familiar “ screecher.” They breed in the burrows, and the 
fledglings are brought to the mouth of the hole to enjoy the 
warmth of the sun. Whether the biscachos and the owl in 
question inhabit harmoniously the same dwelling, is at least 
doubtful. It has been inferred by Sury, that they were either 
common though unfriendly residents of the same burrow, or 
that the owl had acquired a part proprietorship by right of 
conquest. The evidence of this was clearly proved by some of 
these biscachos’ holes examined by M. Lucien Bonaparte, on the 
plains of the river Platta. The burrows tenanted by the owls 
were invariably in a ruinous condition, frequently caved in, and 
