42 
ORNlTIlOLOrUST 
[Vol. t)-No. G. 
and devoured later; I was surprised to see 
how easily they killed these scpiirrels, 
which made scarcelj' any resistance. Aside 
from these, their diet seems to consist of 
different species of mice, pocket gophers 
as well as of crickets, grasshoppers and 
occasionally even of fish. It is astonish¬ 
ing how much one of these Owls will eat 
in a day, amounting .often to consider¬ 
ably more than their own weight. 
About here they occupy the abandoned 
burrows of badgers and ground-scpiirrels. 
The latter are enlarged to suit their re- 
(piirements. They are easily tamed and 
make interesting but rather filthy pets 
When enraged at any strange object, these 
birds will puff themselves out by raising 
tlieir feathers, throw themselves backwards 
in the manner of a woundetl Hawk or Fal¬ 
con, and striking out with their talons if 
within reach of the object, usually emitting 
at the same time a hissing, rattling noise, 
which resembles the warning note of our 
rattlesnake so much, that it cannot be told 
ajiart, and is apt to deceive the closest ob¬ 
server. I have had this demonstrated 
more than once, by asking an assistant, 
who was not aware that these Owls could 
make this j)eculiar noise, to reach into a 
})artially opened burrow,which I knew con¬ 
tained one of these birds and eggs, to get 
tlie latter for me, and was invariably told 
after he had inserted his hand and with¬ 
drawn it in a hurry, ‘‘Captain, there is a 
rattlesnake in that hole,” and nothing 
would convince the man that such was not 
the (^ase, till I exposed the end of the bur¬ 
row, and at the same time the Owl, to 
his view, but no rattlesnake. This un- 
(piestionably accounts for the popular be¬ 
lief amongst frontiers men generally, as 
W'ell as among some naturalists, that 
rattlesnakes, prairie dogs and these Owls 
live in the same domicile. That they 
should be able to kill a full grown j)rairie 
dog seems scarcely probable, but they un- 
doubtedbly kill and live on the young ones. 
I have examined a great many luirrow’s oc¬ 
cupied l)y these Owls and have never found 
any other living animals in any of them 
(always excepting vermin, such as fleas 
and Hies), certainly no snakes or rodents, 
and I believe that they woTild make equally 
short work of the former as of the latter. 
It is possible that these birds capture a 
small bird now and then, but I have not as 
yet had any evidence whatever that they 
do. In the western agi'icultural districts 
this owl deserves the fullest protection, 
living as it does on the worst foes the 
farmers have to content against, and in 
favorable localities it will increase very 
rapidly. 
According to my observations this little 
Owl is the most prolific of the whole family 
found in the U. S. The usual number of 
eggs laid, being nine, althoiigh ten and 
eleven in a set are not unfrequent, and I 
have heard from one of my correspondents 
that he took a set containing not less than 
twelve eggs this spring, near Carson, 
Nevada. They are most devoted parents 
and allow themselves rather to be captured 
than to abandon their treasures. I think 
both parents assist in incubation, which 
lasts about fourteen days. In this vicinity 
they commence laying about April 15th, and 
by the e7ul of May the young Owlets may of 
ten be seen sitting in front of their bur¬ 
rows, In the various localities in which I 
have examined the burrows of these owls, 
I have never found any other material in 
the chamber occupied by the nest, than 
finely broken up dry horse or cow dung. 
This is scattered about from ‘ one to two 
inches deep at the end of the chamber, 
which is somewhat enlarged, and on this 
mass the eggs are deposited, and these, if 
a full set, are usually placed in the shaj)e 
of a horse shoe. I am informed that in 
California these Owls sometimes construct 
their nests out of dry gniss, but I have 
never met with any so construcfed. 
Their eggs, like those of the balance of 
the family, are white, rather more j)olnted 
and glossy however than Owls’ eggs gen¬ 
erally are, and in a large series almost any 
shape may be fiuind from globular to ])yr- 
