at many boys cannot resist the temptation of
climbing up after them and, if there are young ones within, of
carrying the whole affair away in order to try and "raise" the young
birds. Sometimes the nest is put in a cage, where the old bird can
come and feed its young, and in other cases the captor undertakes to
do the feeding himself. I have seen experiments of this kind tried,
but never knew the slightest success to follow them, and the attempt,
generally useless, is always cruel.

But we must positively get away from home and look at some nests to
which few or none of us are accustomed.

There, for instance, is the nest of the Burrowing-Owl, a native of
South America and the regions west of the Rocky Mountains. This little
bird, much smaller than our common owls, likes to live in the ground.
But not having been provided by nature with digging appendages, he
cannot make a hole or burrow for himself, and so he takes up his abode
in the underground holes made by the little prairie-dogs for their own
homes. It is not at all certain that these owls should be called
usurpers or thieves. They may, in some cases, get entire possession of
the holes, but very often they live very sociably with the
prairie-dogs, and may, for all we know, pay for their lodgings by
bringing in grain and seeds, along with the worms and insects which
they reserve for their own table. Any one who does not possess a
habitation of his own, must occasionally expect to be thrown among
strange companions, and this very often happens to the burrowing-owl.
Travellers tell us that not only do the prairie-dogs and owls live
together in these burrows, but that great rattlesnakes sometimes take
up their residence therein--all three families seeming to live
together in peace and unity. I think that it is probable, however,
that the little dogs and owls are not at all pleased with the company
of the snakes. A prairie-dog will not eat an owl, and without the dog
is very young indeed, an owl will not eat him; but a great snake would
just as soon swallow either of them as not, if he happened to be
hungry, which fortunately is not often the case, for a good meal lasts
a snake a long time. But the owls and the prairie-dogs have no way of
ridding themselves of their unwelcome roommates, and, like human
beings, they are obliged to patiently endure the ills they cannot
banish. Perhaps, like human beings again, they become so accustomed to
these ills that they forget ho