But in California, and places where are none of the digging dogs, the little owl rooms with some of the ground squirrels that burrow there. He must have an underground home in that land where trees are scarce, and he has no fancy for digging. Even if he wanted to dig, his feet are not fitted for it like the feet of the little beasts. The burrowing owl has no trouble in taking a house where he finds one to suit him, for he's a savage little fellow. He can kill squirrels and prairie dogs much bigger than himself, and even rattlesnakes, which take lodgings in the prairie dog houses also. He feeds upon all these creatures. He eats also crickets, scorpions, and many troublesome insects. This makes him valuable to farmers, for nearly all these creatures destroy his crops. Remember, too, that birds have great appetites; as I have told you, they eat more than their own weight every day. In that way they dispose of enormous numbers of pests. It almost seems as if a bird were a sort of eating machine, made on purpose to work for us. We should never forget this. This bird, like most others, makes many different sounds. His song is a soft "coo-oo," something like that of a mourning dove. When a stranger comes to his home and he is there, he gives a rattle which sounds like a rattlesnake. This scares people, and perhaps animals, away, for no one wants to meet a rattlesnake in a dark hole. I wonder if the bird learned this trick living in the same house with the snake. The Department of Agriculture has proved owls to be among the most useful of birds. Their food is almost entirely of hurtful creatures, and they come out at night when other birds are asleep and are ready to hunt the pests which do the same. FOOTNOTE: [26] See Appendix, 25. XXXIII THE BARN OWL FAMILY (_Strigidæ_)[27] THIS is a small family of which we have but one member in America, the AMERICAN BARN OWL. He is found all over the country, as far north as southern New England, but he is one of the shyest of birds. He comes out only at night, and hides so well in the day that he is not often seen, even where he is common. So very little is known of his ways. When he does happen to come out, and any one sees him, a great deal is said about him. For he is a very odd-looking fellow indeed. He is all in gray and white, clouded and speckled and barred, and his face is the strangest of bird faces. It is three-cornered, and looks more like a monkey's than a bird's. If he shows this face in the daylight, he is generally caught or shot, and the newspapers make a great fuss about him. Some one says he looks like a toothless little old woman, with a hooked nose. Happily for the barn owl, he does not often come out. He loves quiet more than anything. He seeks a hidden, safe place, not only for a nest, but to spend his days in. He is almost the only bird who may be said to live in a home.