ORNITHOLOGIST 
AND 
OOLOGIST. 
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Annum. 
Established March 187.'), 
.Joseph M. W'aile, Editor and l’ul)lisher. 
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VOL. VI. 
NORWICH, CONN., AUGUST, i88i. 
NO. 6 
Burrowing Owl. 
Speotyto ciiniatlaria hijpoycea. (Richjio.') 
CAP. CHAS. BENDIBE, U. S. A. 
This little Owl is an exceedingly abun¬ 
dant summer resident in the vicinity of 
Walla Walla, W. T., and as there seems to 
be some conflict of ojsinion regarding its 
life-history and general habits, as handed 
down *to us by our earlier ornithological 
observers, I have taken advantage of the 
many excellent opportunities offered me, 
to carefully study its habits in this region- 
It is well known that this species is both 
diiirnal and nocturnal, but it is jDarticularly 
active in the early portion of the evening? 
and I believe that it then seeks most of its 
food. Numbers can be seen hovering in 
the air in the manner of Sparrow-hawks, on 
the lookout for the smaller rodents, etc., 
during the early twilight, whenever they 
are at all common. During the day-time 
they are generally found close to their 
burrows and when not molested, allow 
themselves to be approached very closely. 
In this vicinity their arrival from their 
winter haunts varies generally from the 1st 
to the 10th of March, and by the midcUe 
of the month they become very abundant. 
The males appear to precede the females 
about a week in their arrival, as the first 
ten specimens shot by me, invariably 
proved to be males. 
Daring the pairing season their peculiar 
love note, resembling that of the European 
Cuckoo ( C. canorus) can be heard in all 
directions about 8und( wn, and is kept up 
for an hour or more. This note is only 
uttered wliile the bird is at rest sitting in 
fnuit of its burrow ; while flying about 
they use another chattering sort of note, 
and when alarmed a short, shrill, tzip. 
As this little Owl inhabits a large extent of 
country on both sides of the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains,it is quite possible that its habits may 
differ somewhat in widely sei:)arated re¬ 
gions, and what may hold good here, may 
not eastward of the Mountains. 
I believe this species is generally con 
sidered as a peaceful and harmless bird, 
living in perfect harmony with the prairie 
dogs and ground squin-els, whose abandon¬ 
ed burrow's it inhabits. My observations, 
very carefully made, and covering several 
seasons, lead me to take a different view 
as far as its peacefulness is concerned. 
Taking the small size of this Owl into con¬ 
sideration I must certainly call it an ex¬ 
tremely plucky and aggressive bird, as full 
of courage as any of our Falcons, as it has 
not the least hesitation to attack rodents 
larger and heavier by far then itself. 
In this vicinity these Owls seem to live 
to a great extent on that j^est of the far¬ 
mer, Toxtosend’s Ground Squirrel, /Sper- 
mophilus riclmrdsoni townsendi {Allen^) 
which would be much more destructive if 
not kept down by these Owls. In order to 
satisfy myself that they were actually able 
to kill adult scpiirrels, I trapped several 
and placed them alive (they had been 
caught in a wire trap and were not at all in¬ 
jured) in a room with a pair of these Owls. 
As soon as noticed by the latter one of 
them would fasten its talons into the 
squirrel’s back,and with a few well directed 
strokes of its beak, break the vertebrm of 
the neck, and eat the head off the squirrel, 
often before the latter was cpiite dead, yet, 
the remainder of the body was usually left 
