NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 201 



ing in top branches of pine trees. Dr. Brewer describes a nest con- 

 taining six eggs taken by Mr. MacFarlane on the 28th of April, which 

 was composed of dry sticks and lined with hay and a few feathers. 

 Another, which contained six eggs, was lined with green mosses and 

 deer's hair. One nest contained as many as seven eggs, and all but 

 one had as many as six. Mr. R. B. Ross found this Owl breeding in 

 the Great Slave Lake district as early as the last of March or first of 

 April. A common species about Nulato, on the Yukon, Alaska, where 

 Mr. W. H. Ball, on April 5th, obtained six eggs which were laid in a 

 hollow, in the top of an old birch stump, fifteen feet from the ground. 

 The eggs are said to range from two to six in number, dull white in 

 color, rounded-oval in shape, and average in their long diameter 1.53, 

 and in their short diameter 1.25. 



The Hawk Owl of the northern portions of the Old World, Surnia 

 ulula, is said to be an accidental visitant to Western Alaska. 



378. Speotyto cunicularia hypogsea (BONAP.) [408.] 



Burrowing Owl. 



Hab. Western United States, from the Great Plains to the Pacific, south to Guatemala. Accidental 

 in New England. 



The Burrowing Owl, made famous by popular stories of its living 

 in burrows and holes of the ground with rattlesnakes, gophers and 

 prairie dogs, inhabits the treeless regions of Western North America, 

 from the plains to the Pacific. It is found in all suitable places in 

 Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Nebraska, Indian Territory, Wyom- 

 ing, Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington Territory, 

 Oregon and California. They are usually abundant, and congregate in 

 large communities, breeding in deserted burrows of quadrupeds, such 

 as the prairie dog, badger or gopher, and there is no truth in the state- 

 ments made by travelers that the owls, gophers and rattlesnakes dwell to- 

 gether in harmony. The Owls choose abandoned burrows, and if a snake 

 or quadruped enters, it is only by accident or for the purpose of devouring 

 the unsuspicious Owls. In Dakota and other regions as many as twenty 

 of these birds may be found nestling together in one hole, at which time 

 they are well supplied with food, such as mice, shore larks, etc. In 

 some localities the nesting place is lined with fine weed-stalks, feathers, 

 bits of skin, etc., as Mr. Fred. Corey informs me is the case in the 

 vicinity of Santa Paula, Cal. Captain Charles E. Bendire says he 

 never found any other material in the cavity occupied by the nest than 

 broken pieces of horse or cow dung, in Washington Territory. Around 

 the outside may be found bits of skins of gophers, rats, mice, and ears 

 of small rabbits. The eggs are pure glossy white, nearly round, 



