398 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



This would seem to indicate that these owls always select high, dry 

 ground for their nesting sites; but Samuel N. Rhoads (1892) found a 

 large colony in soil that had previously been very wet, "a continuous 

 colony, three miles long, of breeding Owls. The retreating waters of 

 the adjoining slough had left a margin of flat, grass-grown sand, of 

 varying width, between the swamp and the saw palmettoes, and 

 extending indefinitely in the direction of the stream. This formed 

 the breeding ground of several hundred pairs of Owls." 



W. P. Owen writes to me that he and H. H. Bailey have noticed 

 "the moving of the burrowing owl from its accustomed habitat, the 

 golf courses, to the dairy pastures", in Dade County. 



Nesting. — Probably no such large colonies as that referred to above 

 exist today. W. J. Hoxie wrote to me of visiting a large deserted 

 colony on the St. Johns Prairie in 1893, where the remains of the old 

 towns were strikingly apparent for miles in groups of from six to twenty 

 on all sides; "the mounds, being constructed of the deeper subsoil, 

 long resisted the encroachment of the vegetation and stood bare and 

 sunscorched." Mr. Pennock says: "On but one occasion did I find 

 a close community; then there were six or eight pairs nesting on a 

 restricted tract of not exceeding four or five acres. * * * On only 

 a single occasion, did I find these birds occupying a burrow, other 

 than of their own excavation. This burrow, from its location, size, 

 and form, was unquestionably the work, originally, of the highland 

 tortoise or 'gopher', so called by the residents." 



Other observers all agree that these owls excavate their own bur- 

 rows, mainly because the "gophers" are seldom found on the prairies 

 frequented by the owls, and because there are very few burrowing 

 mammals to be found in the same region. Occasionally, a deserted 

 burrow of a fox or a skunk may be occupied, but these are generally 

 in thick cover, which the owls do not like. 



Most of the burrows that I have seen have been widely separated, 

 single nests; but once, while hunting with Mr. Pennock in Charlotte 

 County, we found five pairs of owls nesting within the space of a few 

 acres. This was on March 5, 1925, and the owls had not laid in the 

 only burrow we dug out, though the burrow and nesting chamber 

 were apparently finished; the hole ran downward at a sharp angle for 

 15 or 20 inches, and along at that depth, with one slight turn in it, 

 for about 6 feet. Mr. Pennock says that the burrows vary in length 

 from 5 to 9 feet, and are usually shallower than those of the western 

 burrowing owl, from 14 to 20 inches below the surface of the ground. 

 Sometimes they are quite straight, but often they make one, or rarely 

 two, abrupt turns. He says that sometimes the eggs are placed 

 directly on the bare earth, but usually some material is used as bed- 

 ding, grass cut to short lengths, rarely some hair or feathers, and once 

 a lot of shredded newspaper; more frequently small pieces of dry 



