Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/163

Rh prairie-dog, which generously shares its hole with bird and snake. The American burrowing owl is essentially a prairie-bird. It occupies, no doubt of choice, the deserted burrows of the Cynomys Ludovicianus (Baird). But if alarmed, as it would be by the presence of man, it would betake itself to the nearest hole for a refuge. In other lands the burrowing owl has no prairie-dogs to take advantage of, and in these places the owls burrow for themselves. They are diurnal prowlers feeding chiefly on grasshoppers, crickets, and field-mice, and not improbably an occasional prairie-dog puppy. One species lives entirely



west of the Mississippi, on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. India has a number of species, which do their own burrow-making, and are an incessantly noisy crew.

We cannot pass by that little marvel, the Liliputian of them all, named Whitney's owl (Micrathene Whitneyi, Coues), It was discovered by Dr. Cooper at Fort Mojave in 1860. This owl is an arboreal bird. It is partly diurnal in habit, and feeds on insects. The little thing is hardly as large as the average sparrow.

5. The Nycteininœ, or day-owls. This small group has but two genera, with one species in each. But here occurs the very handsomest species of the American owls. Fig. 9 shows that splendid bird known as the snowy owl, the arctic owl (Nyctea nivea, Gray). It has been found with a length of twenty-seven inches. Some adults are nearly all white—hence, as a show-bird, it is a favorite. We saw not long since a fine mounted specimen in a New Jersey tavern.