In all the prairie-dog villages we had passed small owls had been observed moving briskly about, but they had hitherto eluded all our attempts to take them. One was here caught, and on examination, found to be the species denominated coquimbo, or burrowing owl, (strix cunicularia.) This fellow-citizen of the prairie-dog, unlike its grave and recluse congeners, is of a social disposition, and does not retire from the light of the sun, but endures the strongest mid-day glare of that luminary, and is in all respects a diurnal bird. It stands high upon its legs, and flies with the rapidity of the hawk. The coquimbo owl, both in Chili and St. Domingo, agreeably to the accounts of Molina and Vieillot, digs large burrows for its habitations, and for the purposes of incubation; the former author gives us to understand that the burrow penetrates the earth to a considerable depth, whilst Vieillot informs us that in St. Domingo, the depth is about two feet.[12]
With us the owl never occurred but in the prairie-dog villages, sometimes in a small flock much scattered, and often perched on different hillocks, at a distance deceiving the eye with the appearance of { 227} the prairie-dog, itself, in an erect posture. They are not shy, but readily admit the hunter within gun-shot; but on his too near approach, a part or the whole of them rise upon the wing, uttering a note very like that of the prairie-dogs, and alight at a short distance, or continue their flight beyond the view.
The burrows into which we have seen the owl descend, resembled in all respects those of the prairie-dog, leading us to suppose, either that they were common, though, perhaps not friendly occupants of the same burrow, or that the owl was the exclusive tenant of a burrow gained by right of conquest. But it is at the same time possible, that, as in Chili, the owl may excavate his own tenement.
From the remarkable coincidence of note between these two widely distinct animals, we might take occasion to remark the probability of the prairie-dog being an unintentional tutor to the young owl, did we not know that this bird utters the same sounds in the West Indies, where the prairie-dog is not known to exist.
It may be that more than a single species of diurnal owl has been confounded under the name of _cunicularia_, as Vieillot states his bird to be somewhat different from that of Molina; and we cannot but observe that the eggs of the bird described by the latter are spotted with yellow, whilst those of the former are immaculate.