174 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 2 



Description. — Length 200-250 mm. Tarsus feathered in front, 

 side and toes in part with slender hairlike filaments. Adult (sexes 

 alike), above grayish brown, streaked on the crown, and irregularly 

 spotted elsewhere, with white to buffy white ; forehead white ; light 

 spots larger on the wing coverts; primaries and secondaries barred 

 heavily with white to buffy white; tail barred with white or buffy 

 white, with the pale markings bordered with slaty gray; superciliary 

 white; side of head mixed dull buff and brownish black; under sur- 

 face white, with a double bar of brownish black across the chest, and 

 irregular bars of warm brown on the sides and breast ; under wing 

 coverts buffy white, the under greater coverts tipped with dark gray. 



Iris yellow. 



Measurements. — (From Ridgway, U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 50, pt. 6, 

 1914, pp. 815-816). Males, wing 164.5-178 (172.3), tail 74.5-86 

 (81.6), culmen from cere 13-15 (14.2), tarsus 41.5-48.5 (45.3) mm. 



Females, wing 162.5-181 (170.3), tail 71.5-85.5 (79), culmen from 

 cere 13-15 (13.9), tarsus 40-46.5 (43) mm. 



Migrant from the north, of casual occurrence: one record from 

 Chiriqui. 



The burrowing owl, of wide distribution on the plains and other 

 open lands of western North America, leaves the northern part of its 

 breeding range in winter, when some move south to Mexico and 

 northern Central America. Stragglers reach western Costa Rica, and 

 there is 1 record in Panama of a female taken by W. W. Brown, Jr., 

 at Divala, Chiriqui, December 13, 1900 (specimen in the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology). 



These birds live on the ground in open pasturelands and savannas 

 where they shelter in any available hole. A hummock, stone, low 

 bush, or fence post is a usual lookout point. 



CICCABA VIRGATA (Cassin) : Mottled Owl; Buho Montanes 

 Figure 28 



An owl of medium size, without feather horns ; varying in color 

 pattern from pale to dark buff and brown. 



Description. — Length 290-330 mm. With light and dark color 

 phases. Adult (sexes alike), dark phase: upper surface olive-brown, 

 barred narrowly, and spotted irregularly, with pale cinnamon-buff 

 to produce a mottled appearance; scapulars with broad, partly con- 

 cealed spots of white, and bars of light cinnamon-buff ; wings fuscous- 



