FLORIDA BURROWING OWL, 397 



birds of Florida and the Bahamas. He describes it as "above darker 

 and much less buffy brown than in any of the forms of S. cunicularia, 

 with the spotting dull white instead of more or less buffy; ground color 

 of under parts much less buffy (dull white, buffy only on thighs and 

 under wing-coverts) ; under wing-coverts spotted with brown, at least 

 toward edge of wing ; tarsus less extensively feathered, the feathering 

 shorter; wing and tail averaging much shorter than in S. cunicularia 

 hypogaca and bill larger." 



The home of this owl is on the prairies of central and southern 

 Florida. One naturally associates burrowing owls with the western 

 prairies and open plains, and so it is not surprising that these birds are 

 to be found on the wide, open spaces in the flatter portions of Florida. 

 On my first visit to Florida I drove for many miles over the extensive 

 prairies that lie between the marshes of the upper St. Johns River and 

 the east coast and was greatly impressed with their many reminders of 

 the western plains; there was the broad expanse of flat grassland, 

 stretching away nearly to the horizon, where distant clumps of trees 

 suggested the tree-claims or the timber belts along the western streams; 

 only the scattered palmetto hammocks broke the illusion; roving 

 bands of wild cattle, with an occasional picturesque cowboy rounding 

 them up, a stray upland plover, then on its way north, the numerous 

 sloughs and ponds, and frequent glimpses of sandhill cranes, all added 

 to the picture. The great Kissimmee Prairie, which I visited later, 

 furnishes even more congenial homes for burrowing owls and cranes 

 in its vast expanse of flat grassy plains. 



Charles J. Pennock, who has had considerable field experience with 

 these owls, has sent me some very elaborate notes on them; as to their 

 haunts, he says: "These almost treeless tracts may vary in size from 

 a few acres to several square miles, may be a disconnected series of 

 open moors or fieldlike tracts, or they may be a chain of larger or 

 smaller prairies, with sloughs, hammocks, or ponds intervening. 

 Wherever found nesting, they are quite sure to be on the higher, 

 drier, opener, and least fertile places. So little above the under- 

 ground water table is much of the country that these birds frequent 

 that a very short distance, even a few rods, may determine the 

 presence or absence of Speotyto, for, where the ground drops to a 

 depression, a pond may be formed, or, failing that, scrub palmettos 

 or other coarse plants may grow, among which the owls do not find 

 congenial abiding places. Even the presence of an occasionally used 

 roadway across a prairie may make the difference to these birds, and 

 it is quite usual to find them located on the borders of such paths or, 

 as I have seen more than once, their domiciles on the very shoulder 

 of the road, between the side ditch and the wheel track. No doubt 

 such sites mean a drier nursery, for they are not infrequently delayed 

 in their home building by rains in March." 



