. Birds that hunt and are hunted; life histories of one hundred and seventy birds of prey, game birds and water fowls . disk incom-plete; legs extremely long and slim, with few or no feathers. Range—Western United States, from the Pacific coast east throughthe Great Plains, north into Canada, south to Central America;accidental in New York and Massachusetts. Season—Permanent resident; or winter visitor at the southern endof its range. Amusing fictions of this tiny owl living in brotherly lovewith prairie dogs and rattlesnakes had a serious explosion whenDr. Coues published his Birds of the Nor
. Birds that hunt and are hunted; life histories of one hundred and seventy birds of prey, game birds and water fowls . disk incom-plete; legs extremely long and slim, with few or no feathers. Range—Western United States, from the Pacific coast east throughthe Great Plains, north into Canada, south to Central America;accidental in New York and Massachusetts. Season—Permanent resident; or winter visitor at the southern endof its range. Amusing fictions of this tiny owl living in brotherly lovewith prairie dogs and rattlesnakes had a serious explosion whenDr. Coues published his Birds of the Northwest; but fictionsdie lingering deaths, and one still reads of happy families,with the prairie owl cutting a conspicuous figure—groups thatBarnum would have certainly secured for the Greatest Show onEarth had they ever existed. From an extended acquaintancewith the habits of the burrowing owl, says Captain Bendire,writing for the government, I can most positively assert, frompersonal experience and investigation, that there is no foundationbased on actual facts for these stories, and that no such happy 35o. SNOWY OWL. Horned and Hoot Owls families exist in reality. I am fully convinced that the burrowingowl, small as it is, is more than a match for the average prairiedog, and the rattlesnake as well; it is by no means the peacefuland spiritless bird that it is generally believed to be, and it subsists,to some extent at least, on young dogs, if not also on the oldones. Enlarging the deserted burrows of numerous small quad-rupeds, especially of ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and badgers,but never living with them, the burrowing owl begins at the far endof the tunnel to loose the earth and send it backward with vigor-ous kicks until all is clear. Now dry horse or cow dung is carriedto the burrow, broken up in little pieces, and scattered over thenesting chamber, which may be eight or even ten feet from theentrance. In California, dry grass, feathers, weed stalks, and such
Size: 1371px × 1823px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectuplandgamebirds
