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Mr. N. H. Bishop presented a male and a female Bur- 

 rowing Owl, [Athene cunicularia,) from South America, 

 and read the following paper upon this bird : — 



THE BURROWING OWL OF SOUTH AMERICA. (Athene 



cunicularia. Molina.) 



I first met with this bird on the banks of the River San Juan, in 

 the Banda Oriental, one hundred and twenty miles west of Monte- 

 video, where a few pairs were observed devouring mice and insects 

 during the daytime. From the river, travelling westward thirty 

 miles, I did not meet a single individual, but after crossing the 

 Las Vacas, and coming upon a sandy waste covered with scattered 

 trees and low bushes, I again met with several. 



Upon the pampas of the Argentine Republic they are found in 

 great numbers, from a fevv miles west of Rosario, on the Parana, 

 Lit. 32 deg. 56 min. south, to the vicinity of San Luis, where the 

 pampas end and a travesia or saline desert commences. 



On these immense plains of grass it lives in company with 

 the bizcacha, (Lagostomics trichodactylus, Brookes,) an animal 

 that bears resemblance to the rabbit and agouti, and undermines a 

 great extent of country with its burrows. The habits of this owl 

 are said to be the same as those of the species that inhabits the 

 holes of the marmots upon the prairies of western North America, 

 and one writer speaking of the latter bird remarks, " We have 

 no evidence that the owl and marmot habitually resort to one 

 burrow ; " and Say adds, " that they were either common though 

 unfriendly residents of the same habitation, or that our owl was 

 the sole occupant of a burrow acquired by the right of con- 

 quest." Li this respect they differ from their South American 

 relatives, who live in perfect harmony with the bizcacha, and 

 during the day while the latter is sleeping, a pair of these birds 

 stand a fevv inches within the main entrance of the burrow, 

 and at the first sound, be it near or distant, they leave their station 

 and remain outside of the hole, or upon the mound that forms the 

 roof of the domicile. When man approaches, both birds mount 

 above him in the air and keep up the alarm note, with irides 

 dilated, until he passes, when they quietly settle down in the 

 grass, or return to their former place. 



