This Habit Of Picking
Up Whatever May Be Lying On The Ground Anywhere Near Its
Habitation, Must Cost Much Trouble.
For what purpose it
is done, I am quite unable to form even the most remote
conjecture:
It cannot be for defence, because the rubbish
is chiefly placed above the mouth of the burrow, which
enters the ground at a very small inclination. No doubt
there must exist some good reason; but the inhabitants of
the country are quite ignorant of it. The only fact which
I know analogous to it, is the habit of that extraordinary
Australian bird, the Calodera maculata, which makes an
elegant vaulted passage of twigs for playing in, and
which collects near the spot, land and sea-shells, bones
and the feathers of birds, especially brightly coloured
ones. Mr. Gould, who has described these facts, informs
me, that the natives, when they lose any hard object,
search the playing passages, and he has known a tobacco-
pipe thus recovered.
The little owl (Athene cunicularia), which has been so
often mentioned, on the plains of Buenos Ayres exclusively
inhabits the holes of the bizcacha; but in Banda Oriental it
is its own workman. During the open day, but more especially
in the evening, these birds may be seen in every direction
standing frequently by pairs on the hillock near their
burrows. If disturbed they either enter the hole, or, uttering
a shrill harsh cry, move with a remarkably undulatory
flight to a short distance, and then turning round, steadily
gaze at their pursuer. Occasionally in the evening they may
be heard hooting. I found in the stomachs of two which
I opened the remains of mice, and I one day saw a small
snake killed and carried away. It is said that snakes are
their common prey during the daytime. I may here mention,
as showing on what various kinds of food owls subsist,
that a species killed among the islets of the Chonos
Archipelago, had its stomach full of good-sized crabs. In
India [2] there is a fishing genus of owls, which likewise
catches crabs.
In the evening we crossed the Rio Arrecife on a simple
raft made of barrels lashed together, and slept at the post-
house on the other side. I this day paid horse-hire for
thirty-one leagues; and although the sun was glaring hot I
was but little fatigued. When Captain Head talks of riding
fifty leagues a day, I do not imagine the distance is equal
to 150 English miles. At all events, the thirty-one leagues
was only 76 miles in a straight line, and in an open country
I should think four additional miles for turnings would be
a sufficient allowance.
29th and 30th. - We continued to ride over plains of the
same character. At San Nicolas I first saw the noble river
of the Parana. At the foot of the cliff on which the town
stands, some large vessels were at anchor. Before arriving
at Rozario, we crossed the Saladillo, a stream of fine clear
running water, but too saline to drink.
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