384 BULLETIN 170, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Marie, April 29. Ontario — Ottawa, April 5 (unusually late, May 5). 

 Massachusetts — Sandwich, March 25. Vermont — Wells River, March 

 4. New Hampshire — Colebrook, April 20. Maine — Van Buren, 

 April 16. 



Casual records. — According to Reid (1884) one was "seen" at St. 

 George, Bermuda, date unknown. This record is considered doubt- 

 ful. On three different occasions (December 26, 1884, March 10, 

 1885, and January 28, 1886) the hawk owl was reported from Mount 

 Carmel, Audrain County, Mo., but as no specimen from that State 

 is known, these observations also must be considered doubtful. 



One was shot at Raymond, Nebr., in November 1891; there are a 

 few records for northern Illinois, and one was captured near Oberlin, 

 Ohio, about 1880. Other records for Ohio, as well as one for Indiana, 

 are considered unsatisfactory. Several hawk owls, collected in the 

 British Isles, have been identified as the American form. 



A closely related subspecies, the Siberian hawk owl, Surnia ulula 

 pallasi, is found in eastern Siberia. Two specimens collected in 

 Alaska, one at St. Michael, in October 1876, and the other at Bethel 

 in November have been identified as of this race. 



Egg dates.— Alaska and Arctic Canada: 10 records, April 28 to 

 June 14; 5 records, May 4 to 17, indicating the height of the season. 



Alberta: 38 records, April 1 to June 4; 19 records, April 13 to 28. 



Labrador and Newfoundland: 6 records, May 3 to June 20. 



SPEOTYTO CUNICULARIA HYPUGAEA (Bonaparte) 



western burrowing owl 

 Plates 86, 87 



HABITS 



On the wide, open, treeless plains and prairies, west of the Mississippi 

 Valley, and from southern Canada south into Mexico, this curious 

 little owl is, or was, widely distributed even as far west as the Pacific 

 States. It loves the virgin prairies and the unbroken plains but does 

 not take kindly to cultivated land; consequently the encroachments 

 of agriculture have greatly restricted its former range ; it is now found 

 ordinarily only in the few scattered places where primitive conditions 

 still remain, untouched by the hand of man. 



Much foolish nonsense has been broadcast by careless observers, or 

 romancers, about the home life of these birds and their happy family 

 relations with prairie dogs and rattlesnakes. No intelligent naturalist 

 now believes any such fantastic stories as have been told, and perhaps 

 believed by some. Dr. Elliott Coues (1874) has explained the basis 

 for these yarns, and given us the actual facts, in the following well 

 chosen words: 



