. My second I found
later in the day in an apple tree. The tree was in bloom, but not
leaved out, and offered but scant hide or protection for the nest.
Indeed I, at first, took it for an old crow's nest, and was about to
pass on, when up over the rim of the nest bobbed two long ear-like
tufts--whence the bird gets its name. Approaching the tree, the mother
quietly left, and as long as I was in that vicinity I saw nothing
further of her. The long-eared owl is not very particular in the choice
of her nesting-place. They will often build in a communal manner,
several pairs selecting a fir grove or other suitable place; and here
you will find the nests quite near together. Again, they will be
isolated in location; one here, and another quite a distance away, as
the notion strikes them. The nest also seems to vary with their state
of mind. At times they will build a very elaborate structure of their
own; then, again, they take up with an old crow's nest or the summer
nest of a squirrel, and with very little patching up make this answer
their purpose. Because of this variability on their part, it is not an
easy matter to locate an occupied nest.

[Illustration: ELABORATE NEST OF LONG-EARED OWL.]

One more, and I am done with the owls. The securing of this was of
great interest to me, not alone for the sake of the picture, but
because it settled two questions on which I had long been in doubt. At
the time of which I now write I was living in an Indian school, and
previous to this all my ideas of Indians and Indian life had been
gathered from Cooper. Near the school was a large village of prairie
dogs covering something like ten acres of ground. One day I saw a small
species of owl flying around and lighting on the different mounds. I
immediately knew it to be the burrowing owl; but where among all those
thousand and more holes to dig for her was a question I could not
answer. To assist me, I brought the supposed craft of the red man's
children to bear; but of no avail. Not one of over two hundred could
give me the least ray of light. Then I got down to principles and
discovered that there were some mounds around which were scattered
butterflies' and grasshoppers' legs and wings, parts of frogs and
toads, and the little pellets usually ejected by owls in the process of
digestion. I also found that these mounds were invariably covered by an
animal compost gathered from the surrounding prairie. I resolved to put
my theory to t