FAM. XXVII. HORNED OWLS, ETC. 



191 



lives in the deserted holes or burrows of '' prairie dogs '' and 

 other quadrupeds, including foxes and badgers. 



Length, 10 ; wing, Q\ (bl-l\) ; tail, 3^- ; tarsus, 1| ; culmen, f. West- 

 ern United States, including the Great Tlains, north to southern British 

 America and south to Central America. Accidental in Xew York and 

 Massachusetts. The Florida Burrowing Owl (378*. S. c floridana) of 

 southern Florida and the Bahamas is much like the last, but averages 

 slightly smaller ; the legs are even more nearly free from feathers ; the 

 lower parts have a more purely white ground color, and the upper parts a 

 sepia-brown with pure white dottings. 



12. Ferruginous Pygmy Owl (380. Glaucidium jilmhenoldes. 

 — A very small, southwestern, olive-brown, or reddish owl, with- 

 out ear tufts, and Avith a chestnut-red or white tail crossed 

 by about eight blackish-brown 

 bars. The top of the head is 

 sharply streaked with whitish. 

 The olive-brown or reddish of 

 the back is mainly free from 

 markings excepting the shoul 

 ders, which have large, round, 

 white spots. This small spe- 

 cies, like the screech owl, is 

 found in some varieties, — a 

 grayish-brown, a red one and 

 some that are intermediate in 

 color. Sometimes the red is so 

 intense and uniform as to de- 

 stroy the barring of the tail 

 and the wings. (Ferruginous 

 Gnome Owl.) 



Ferruginous Pygmy Owl 



Length, 6| ; wing, 4 (Z\-AV) ; tail, 3 ; tarsus, | ; culmen, 

 Arizona and south to southern Brazil. 



Texas to 



13. Elf Owl (381. Micropdllas whitneyi). — A very small, 

 western, mottled, and grayish or grayish-brown owl, without 

 ear tufts and with a white or whitish, more or less interrupted, 

 collar around the neck. The lower parts are white, with more 



