240 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



' Athene cunicularia, Hartlaub, Isis, 1847, p. 610 (listed). 



Athene dominicensis, Salle, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1857, p. 231 (habits). 



Strix cunicularia, Vielllot, Hist. Nat. Ois. Amer. Sept., vol. 1, 1807, pp. 48-49 

 (habits). 



Strix dominicensis, Bryant, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 11, May, 1867, 

 p. 90 (Dominican Republic). 



Speotyto, Lonnberg, Fauna och Flora, 1929, p. 102 (Haiti). 



Speotyto cunicularia, Cory, Birds Haiti and San Domingo, Dec, 1884, pp. 118- 

 119 (Petionville, Port-au-Prince). — Tippenhauer, Die Insel Haiti, 1892, pp. 319, 

 322 (listed). 



Speotyto dominicensis, Verrill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1909, p. 359 

 (between La Vega and Santiago, Azua). — Beebe, Zool. Soc. Bull., vol. 30, 1927, 

 p. 140; Beneath Tropic Seas, 1928, p. 221 (Haiti). 



Speotyto cunicularia dominicensis, Cory, Bull. Nuttall Ornith. Club, 1881, 

 p. 154 (range) ; Cat. West Indian Birds, 1892, p. 100 (Haiti, Dominican Re- 

 public). — Cherrie, Field Columbian Mus., Ornith. ser. , vol. 1, 1896, p. 22 

 (Honduras). — Kaempfer, Jour, fiir Ornith., 1924, p. 182 (habits). 



Speotyto floridana dominicensis, Ridgway, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 50, pt. 6, 

 1914, p. 823 (Haiti, Dominican Republic). — Peters, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 

 vol. 61, 1917, p. 410 (Sosua, Monte Cristi). — Bartsch, Smithsonian Misc. 

 Colls., vol. 68, no. 12, 1918, fig. 45 (photo).— Bond, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 

 Philadelphia, vol. 80, 1928, p. 501 (Haiti).— Danforth, Auk, 1929, p. 368 

 (specimens).— Moltoni, Att. Soc. Ital. Scienz. Nat., vol. 68, 1929, p. 316 (San 

 Juan, specimen). 



Resident; locally common. 



The burrowing owl inhabits semi-open arid scrubs and does not 

 enter areas of heavy forest. It has not been recorded from the 

 Samana Peninsula, and in the high interior is known now only from 

 the valley of Constanza. It is most common in Haiti and in north- 

 western and southwestern Dominican Republic. 



This species lives in holes in the earth which it excavates to a 

 depth of several feet. It is active by day and may be seen standing 

 on the little mound of earth above its burrow singly, in pairs, or in 

 family groups, or perched in low trees, on fence posts, stumps or 

 other low perches where it watches all that may transpire with round 

 eyes and a general air of smug satisfaction at its estate. When 

 alarmed it bows with quick genuflexions and if disturbed flies quick- 

 ly to some more distant perch or retreats hastily to the depths of its 

 burrow. Although active by day it is also abroad by night and is 

 frequently heard calling after dark. In modern travel it is often 

 observed at night in the light thrown by automobile headlights. 



Oviedo mentions owls smaller than those of Spain that must in- 

 clude the present species. Salle describes the habits of the burrow- 

 ing owl and remarks that the burrow entrance is usually strewn 

 with fragments of dried horse dung, a peculiar habit of unknown 

 significance observed in other forms of the burrowing owl in North 

 America and in the plains of southern South America. Cherrie did 

 not find burrowing owls abundant in the Dominican Republic as he 



