OWLS. 
157 
returns to its underground dwelling, which consists of the 
burrows of the marmot, or prairie-dog, an animal abounding 
on the vast plains of the western part of the United States. 
These burrows are called *by the natives marmot villages, and 
are so numerous and extensive, that they will sometimes 
spread over the face of the country for miles together. If 
disturbed, the Owls, which are usually seated near the 
burrows, either fly off a little way, and settle again, or 
descend into the holes, from whence it is no easy matter to 
dislodge them.” 
Another traveller, Captain Sir Prancis Head, when tra- 
velling over some immense plains in South America, called 
the Pampas, fell in with them in company with the biscachos, 
an animal much resembling the above-mentioned prairie- 
dogs, of very singular appearance, nearly as large as badgers, 
hut their heads not unlike a rabbit’s, except that they have 
large bushy whiskers. In the evening, they 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 
away from their post. As strangers gallop by, 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 
pass close to them, fear gets the better of their dignified 
looks, and they both run into the biscachos’ holes. # 
The next order which offers itself to our notice in the 
tables of classification, is the 
Passerine, subdivided into 
seven tribes, the first of which 
is the Crenirostral, from two 
Latin words, signifying notch- 
billed, as they are all more or 
less indented or notched to- 
wards the extremity, as in 
the annexed figure. 
In the preceding order the same peculiarity, indeed, exists, 
* Head’s Rough Notes. 
