IOS Palmer. The Florida (hound Oivl. [^"^ 



contained eggs. The birds had evidently selected such a situation 

 not only for ease of digging, but also for ease of observation 

 against their natural enemies, skunks, rattlesnakes and such like. 

 All burrows found except one had no vegetation except short 

 grass immediately about the tunnel. This exception had on one 

 side several tall, thin clumps of bunch grass. The burrows 

 represented in the diagram may, in a sense, be said to form a 

 community, though by using this expression I do not intend to 

 convey any idea that these owls are really gregarious. Usually a 

 community or colony contains about three to six burrows, and 

 generally they are from thirty to over one hundred yards apart, 

 though occasionally two will be found about fifteen or twenty feet 

 from each other. Occasionally, also, a burrow will be seen at a 

 considerable distance from any other, and again, many miles may 

 intervene between colonies ; in short, the birds seem to require 

 peculiar conditions of environment, as indicated above, and also to 

 have in slight degree some gregarious feeling, which leads them 

 to locate with their fellows if there is adequate room. 



A comparison of the color of the feet of thirteen specimens, all 

 collected at the same place and at the same time, presents consid- 

 erable contrast. In about half of them the feet and lower portion 

 of the tarsi were uniformly dark and but slightly paler beneath. The 

 remainder showed a variety of changes from one which had the 

 feet and lower third of the tarsi a dullish lemon yellow to the 

 other extreme in which the yellow was confined to the soles. As 

 this color is evanescent it does not show in dried specimens. 



My use of a binomial name for this bird requires perhaps some 

 explanation. A comparison of about sixty specimens oi floridana 

 with an equal number of hypogcea shows them to be distinct. As 

 the habitat of the Florida bird does not approach that of hypogcea 

 nearer than about eight hundred miles, and is also separated 

 from its relatives in the West Indies and South America by vast 

 areas of water, and as intergrading forms are unknown, I see no 

 good reason why floridana should not rank as a species. 



Again, as the use of a trinomial implies direct relationship with 

 the specific form, through known intermediate and intergrading 

 specimens, which certainly do not exist in this case, I can see no 

 reason why floridana should be made a subspecies of the South 

 American cunicularia. 



