132 
PAMPAS 
CHAP. 
defence, because the rubbish is chiefly placed above the mouth 
of the burrow, which enters the ground at a very small inclina¬ 
tion. No doubt there must exist some good reason ; but the 
inhabitants of the country are quite ignorant of it. The only 
fact which I know analogous to it, is the habit of that extra¬ 
ordinary Australian bird, the Calodera maculata, which makes 
an elegant vaulted passage of twigs for playing in, and which 
collects near the spot land and sea shells, bones, and the 
feathers of birds, especially brightly coloured ones. Mr. Gould, 
who has described these facts, informs me, that the natives, 
when they lose any hard object, search the playing passages, 
and he has known a tobacco-pipe thus recovered. 
The little owl (Athene cunicularia), which has been so 
often mentioned, on the plains of Buenos Ayres exclusively 
inhabits the holes of the bizcacha ; but in Banda Oriental it 
is its own workman. During the open day, but more especially 
in the evening, these birds may be seen in every direction 
standing frequently by pairs on the hillock near their burrows. 
If disturbed they either enter the hole, or, uttering a shrill 
harsh cry, move with a remarkably undulatory flight to a 
short distance, and then turning round, steadily gaze at their 
pursuer. Occasionally in the evening they may be heard 
hooting. I found in the stomachs of two which I opened 
the remains of mice, and I one day saw a small snake killed 
and carried away. It is said that snakes are their common 
prey during the daytime. I may here mention, as showing on 
what various kinds of food owls subsist, that a species killed 
among the islets of the Chonos Archipelago had its stomach 
full of good-sized crabs. In India 1 there is a fishing genus of 
owls, which likewise catches crabs. 
In the evening we crossed the Rio Arrecife on a simple 
raft made of barrels lashed together, and slept at the post- 
house on the other side. I this day paid horse-hire for thirty- 
one leagues ; and although the sun was glaring hot I was but 
little fatigued. When Captain Head talks of riding fifty 
leagues a day, I do not imagine the distance is equal to 150 
English miles. At all events, the thirty-one leagues was only 
76 miles in a straight line, and in an open country I should think 
four additional miles for turnings would be a sufficient allowance. 
1 Journal of Asiatic. Soc. vol. v. p. 363. 
