cries so well described by Wilson, it moves its body, and particularly its head, in various grotesque ways, and at intervals violently snaps its bill. Its food consists of various gallinaceous birds, half-grown turkeys, domestic poultry of all kinds, ducks, grouse, hares, opossums, and squirrels; and whenever chance throws a dead fish on the shore, this bird feeds on it

with peculiar avidity. The Virginian Horned Owl is very powerful, and equally spirited. Mallards, guinea-fowl, and common fowls fall an easy prey, and are carried off in its talons to the depths of the woods. When wounded, says Audubon, it exhibits a revengeful tenacity of spirit, scarcely surpassed by the noblest of the eagle tribe; disdaining to scramble away, it faces its enemy with undaunted courage, protruding its powerful talons, and snapping its bill. Its large goggle eyes open and shut in quick succession; and the feathers of its body are puffed up, and swell out its apparent bulk to nearly double the natural size. In some districts it is a great nuisance to the settler, making sad havoc among his stock of poultry. Among some of the Indian nations a sort of reverential horror is entertained towards this bird, and the priests and conjurers have adopted it as the symbol of their office, carrying about with them a stuffed specimen with glass eyes, which excites general awe. bird usually constructs a bulky nest in the forked branch of a tree, composed externally of crooked sticks, and lined with coarse grass and feathers. The eggs are three or four in number, and of a dull white.

This

The Mottled Owl (Strix nævia), a small, handsome species known as the Little Screech Owl, inhabits California and Oregon as well as the Atlantic States. They feed on small birds, beetles, crickets, and other insects, build in hollow trees, and utter most dismal shrieks in the late summer and autumn evenings, keeping up the din till midnight. Mr. Farnham mentions the Great Snow Owl (Strix Nietoa), and the Burrowing Owl (Strix Cunicularia) which inhabits the

burrows of the Prairie Marmot. This bird is thus described by L. Bonaparte.

"In the trans-Mississippian territories of the United States the Burrowing Owl resides exclusively in the villages of the marmot or prairie dog, whose excavations are so commodious as to render it unnecessary that our bird should dig for himself, as he is said to do in other parts of the world where no burrowing animals exist. These villages are very numerous, and variable in their extent, sometimes covering only a few acres, and at others spreading over the surface of the country for miles together. They are composed of slightly elevated mounds, having the form of a truncated cone, about two feet in width at base, and seldom rising as high as eighteen inches above the surface of the soil. The entrance is placed either

at the top or on the side, and the whole mound is beaten down externally, especially at the summit, resembling a much-used footpath.

"From the entrance, the passage into the mound descends vertically for one or two feet, and is thence continued obliquely downwards, until it terminates in an apartment, within which the industrious marmot constructs, on the approach of the cold season, a comfortable cell for his winter's sleep. This cell, which is composed of fine dry grass, is globular in form, with an opening at top capable of admitting the finger; and the whole is so firmly compacted, that it might, without injury, be rolled over the floor.

"In all the prairie-dog villages the Burrowing Owl is seen moving briskly about, or else in small flocks scattered among the mounds, and at a distance it may be mistaken for the marmot itself when sitting erect. They manifest but little timidity, and allow themselves to be approached sufficiently close for shooting; but if alarmed, some or all of them soar away or settle down again at a short distance; if further disturbed, their flight is continued until they are no longer in view, or they descend into their dwellings, whence they are difficult to dislodge.

"The burrows into which these Owls have been seen to descend, on the plains of the River Platte (a tributary to the Missouri), where they are most numerous, were evidently excavated either by the marmot, whence it has been inferred by Say that they were common though unfriendly residents of the same habitation, or that our Owl was the sole occupant of a burrow acquired by the right of conquest. That the latter idea is correct was clearly presented by the ruinous condition of the burrows tenanted by the Owl,

while the neat and well-preserved mansion of the marmot showed the active care of a skilful and industrious owner. We have no evidence that the Owl and marmot habitually resort to one burrow; yet we are well assured by Pike and others that a common danger often drives them into the same excavation, where lizards and rattlesnakes also enter for concealment and safety. The Owl observed by Vieillot in St. Domingo digs itself a burrow two feet in depth, at the bottom of which its eggs are deposited on a bed of moss, herb-stalks, and dried roots.

"The note of our bird is strikingly similar to the cry of the marmot, which sounds like cheh, cheh, pronounced several times in rapid succession; and were it not that the Burrowing Owls of the West Indies, where no marmots exist, utter the same sound, it might be inferred that the marmot was the unintentional tutor to the young owl: this cry is only uttered as the bird begins its flight. The food of the bird we are describing appears to consist entirely of insects, as, on examination of its stomach, nothing but parts of their hard wing-cases were found."

The American Shrike, or Butcher Bird (Lanius Septentrionalis), is found here. His principal food is large insects, such as grasshoppers, crickets, and spiders, sometimes impaling them on thorns, possibly as a lure to smaller birds, which he sometimes attacks. and tears in pieces with his sharp hooked bill. He is noted also for his imitative powers as a songster; but his usual note is discordant and hoarse.

There are several species of the Fly Catcher. Among others, the well known King Bird, or Tyrant Fly Catcher, (Muscicapa Tyrannus.) Among smaller American birds, the most pugnacious and intrepid.