VOl i8^ II]t ] Palmer, The Florida Ground Owl. 1 05 



a burrow, in a few days (in one case the same night) it was again 

 reoccupied by a pair. Where the owls spend the time between the 

 close of one breeding season and the beginning of another, I am 

 unable to say. That they withdraw from their summer quarters 

 is evident from the statements of people living in the vicinity. 



Mr. Rhoads, in his paper cited before, says on page 6 : " Every 

 action of this species bespeaks a bird of eminently diurnal habits, 

 but I have no reason to believe that they cannot range with equal 

 freedom at night. From the nature of their food, however, I con- 

 clude they are more active in the daytime." Mr. Scott says also 

 in his paper, page 218 : " For I believe these birds to be strictly 

 diurnal, doing most of their hunting, however, in the early morn- 

 ing and evening." As these gentlemen visited the haunts of these 

 owls at the height of the breeding season, when many of the 

 burrows contained young, the old owls were evidently forced by 

 the demands of their numerous progeny to hunt in the daytime. 

 In no instance did we find an owl away from the burrows except 

 when frightened off by ourselves. Also I cannot agree with Mr. 

 Rhoads that from the nature of their food they are more active 

 in the daytime. All tile stomachs examined contained remains of 

 crayfish and beetles, which are certainly not animals whose season 

 of activity is the daytime. In the tunnel of one burrow I found 

 some feathers of a Savanna Sparrow. In the scratchings from 

 the burrows, especially the old ones, minutely broken remains of 

 crayfish were abundant, and in some cases we found about the 

 mouths of the burrows what were certainly pellets, consisting of 

 crayfish and beetle shells somewhat broken up. The nature of 

 the material, containing no hair or feathers to bind it together, 

 accounts for the rarity of pellets and for the abundance of the 

 scattered remains in and about the tunnels. 



Most writers mention that the male usually keeps watch at the 

 mouth of the burrow and on the appearance of an intruder warns 

 his mate with a low note of alarm. This was our invariable 

 experience. My own observations convinced me that in every 

 instance at the time of our visits to the owls (usually in the mid- 

 dle of the morning), the female was in the burrow while the male 

 stood guard in the tunnel at the entrance. Upon slowly and 

 quietly approaching a burrow, which could always be distinguished 



