Hmmm. Well, that seems to make one lean toward Short-eared Owl =
"Prairie" Owl, doesn't it? Unless the Burrowing Owls in this particular
meadow had scuba gear. That and the fact that the site is a true prairie,
in the etymologically pure sense of the word. And one knows of many
highly literate army officers (not that Don's guy was necessarily one of
them of course, but the possibility shouldn't be excluded prima facie).
Julius Caesar and Marcus Aurelius for starters. Both of whom were
standard reading at West Point I'd bet, in the original Latin, in the
years Don references.

Hal Opperman
halop at u.washington.edu
phone 206-635-0503

On Mon, 4 Nov 1996, Don Baccus wrote:

> >Nuttall's classic Manual of the Ornithology of the US and Canada (1832)
> >discusses both species and names them Short-eared Owl and Burrowing Owl,
> >with no colorful alternate names proposed (and he was not timid about
> >proffering such in other cases).
>
> Yeah, but this description was included in a passage written by an
> Army officer - and I don't mean Captain Bendire, either :) Though
> he does express humble admiration for Bendire...
>
> >Even though we today loosely use the term "prairie" to refer to a range of
> >grassland habitats including the dry extreme, the original meaning of the
> >term (from the French) is more exactly "meadow," that is, rather lush
> >places, including wet meadows but excluding the dry plains.
>
> When I mentioned the Great Plains, I failed to mention that the particular
> spot being mentioned was not actually dry plains, but rather meadows
> at the base of the Big Horn range, well watered by small streams and
> lush to the point where the writer raved about their camp there.
>
> - Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>
> Nature photos, on-line guides, at http://www.xxxpdx.com/~dhogaza
>
>