326 
BURROWING OWL. 
animals remarkable for their social disposition, neatness, and 
order. Instead of sailing heavily forth in the obscurity of the 
evening or morning twilight, and then retreating to mope away 
the intervening hours, our owl enjoys the broadest glare of the 
noonday sun, and, flying rapidly along, searches for food or 
pleasure during the cheerful light of day. 
The votaries of natural science must always feel indebted to 
the learned and indefatigable Say, for the rich collection of 
facts he has made whenever opportunities have been presented, 
but more especially in the instance of this very singular bird, 
whose places of resort in this country are too far distant to 
allow many the pleasure of examining for themselves. We 
feel doubly disposed to rejoice that the materials for the history 
of our bird are drawn from his ample store, both on account of 
their intrinsic excellence, and because it affords us an oppor- 
tunity of evincing our admiration ot the zeal, talents, and in- 
tegrity, which have raised this man to the most honourable and 
enviable eminence as a naturalist. 
In the trans-Mississippian territories of the United States, 
the burrowing owl resides exclusively in the villages of the 
Marmot, or Prairie Dog, whose excavations are so commo- 
dious, as to render it unnecessary that our bird should dig for 
himself, as he is said to do in other parts of the world, where 
no burrowing animals exist. These villages are very nume- 
rous, and variable in their extent, sometimes covering only 
a few acres, and at others spreading over the surface of the 
country for miles together. They are composed of slightly 
elevated mounds, having the form of a truncated cone, about 
two feet in width at base, and seldom rising as high as eighteen 
inches above the surface of the soil. The entrance is placed 
either at the top or on the side, and the whole mound is beaten 
down externally, especially at the summit, resembling a much- 
used footpath. 
From the entrance, the passage into the mound descends 
vertically for one or two feet, and is thence continued obliquely 
downwards, until it terminates in an apartment, within which 
