Vol ,s^," 1 I Palmer, The Florida Ground Owl. 103 



These irregular patches of open sandy areas are found in various 

 parts of the prairies but always on the higher ground, though 

 I must confess that these last words seem out of place when 

 describing a country where one can travel many miles without 

 noticing a three foot rise of the ground. Such more elevated 

 ground, when originally overgrown with saw palmettoes, are the 

 usual burrowing places of foxes and skunks. The burning drives 

 out these animals to more secluded quarters, and thus, as I believe, 

 in time the Ground Owls take possession of their burrows. As 

 the bareness of such places increases, other burrows are dug by 

 the owls, thus accounting for the various shapes and sizes of 

 these excavations. The strong odor of the mammals in some 

 burrows from which I had just driven the owls, and their size as 

 compared with burrows undoubtedly dug by the birds themselves 

 convinced me of these facts. Within a few feet of some burrows 

 was a shallower one but a foot or two deep, while about one I 

 noticed a dozen or more shallow depressions, possibly the dusting 

 places of Quails. 



The commonest and I believe the original burrows of the 

 Ground Owls are placed, as described by Mr. Rhoads, in the low, 

 wet, grassy areas between the edges of the sloughs and ponds and 

 the margins of the prairies. Such suitable breeding grounds 

 extend for many miles, are rarely more than a few hundred yards 

 wide, and follow the contour line of very high water. The 

 diagram will show the character and general shape of these 

 places. It is drawn from memory of a place near the Kissimmee 

 River in Osceola County, where my friend Brown and myself 

 secured eleven owls out of the burrows represented. On the left 

 is an extensive prairie of scrub saw palmetto interspersed with 

 open areas of grass and ponds with here and there at long inter- 

 vals an ' island ' or ' hammock ' composed of two or more cabbage 

 palmettoes, live oaks and gums separately or mixed, scattered or 

 densely crowded, and sometimes growing in the water, but usually 

 on a little elevation surrounded by a ring of water. At intervals 

 through this prairie are the drier elevations before mentioned. 

 At the edge of the prairie are many round ' islands ' of saw pal- 

 mettoes, from five to about fifty feet in diameter, and perhaps 

 four to eight feet high. On the right, at a slightly lower level, 



