A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 3 of 3Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Science
A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 3 of 3
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Birds -- North America
Mr. Nathaniel H. Bishop met with _cunicularia_ on the banks of the river
San Juan, in Banda Oriental, where a few pairs were seen, devouring
mice and insects. After crossing the river Las Vacas, and coming upon
a sandy waste covered with scattered trees and low bushes, he again
encountered it. Upon the pampas of the Argentine Republic they were
found in great numbers, from a few miles west of Rosario to the vicinity
of San Luis, where the pampas end. On these immense plains of grass
it lives in company with the Bizcacha (_Lagostomus trichodactylus_),
dwelling with it in perfect harmony, and during the day, while the
animal is sleeping, a pair of Owls stand a few inches within the main
entrance of the burrow, and at the first sound, be it near or distant,
leave their station and remain outside the hole, or upon the mound
that forms the roof of their domicile. At the approach of man, both
birds, with their irides dilated, mount above him in the air, and keep
up an alarm-note until he passes. Then they quietly settle down in the
grass, or return to their former place. On the pampas Mr. Bishop did
not observe them taking their prey during the daytime, but as soon as
the sun had set, the Bizcacha and Owls both leave their holes in search
of food, the young of the former playing about the birds as they alight
near them. They do not associate in companies, there being but one pair
to a hole. Each couple keep separate from their neighbors, and at night
do not stray from their homes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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