COUES ON BIRDS OF DAKOTA AND MONTANA. 



619 



about four months old. One of them died soon after, from some unex- 

 plained cause; the other survived all the vicissitudes of camp-life, in- 

 cluding a pistol-shot from a man who mistook the bird for a wild one, 

 and was finally, after travelling seven or eight hundred miles, safely 

 deposited in an aviary in Saint Paul. 



SPBOTYTO CUNICULAEIA HYPOG.EA, {Bp.) Coucs. 

 Burrowing Owl. 



First observed at a point on the Boundary Line a little east of French- 

 man's River, not far from the mouth of Milk Kiver, where a few individ- 

 uals inhabited a small settlement of Prairie Dogs {Gynomys ludovicianus). 

 This seems to be about the northern limit of the species, and it is 

 nowhere so abundant in this region as in many places further south. It 

 was met with a second time a little west of Frenchman's River, and for 

 the third time, in somewhat greater numbers, on a i3iece of prairie near 

 Sweetgrass Hills. There were no Prairie Dogs here or at the locality 

 last mentioned, so far as I know, but the ground was riddled with the 

 burrows of the Tawny Mabvmots{Spermophilus richardsotii), which seemed 

 to suit the Owls just as well. 



Several other species of this family certainly inhabit the region sur- 

 veyed ; but the two foregoing were the only ones actually observed. 

 The circumstances of a Survey like the present are not the most favor- 

 able for observation of these nocturnal birds ; for, when night comes, 

 a man is generally too tired to care about anything but sleep, especially 

 when the prospect is breakfast by candle-light and "pull out" at day- 

 light to argue again with mules and miles. 



List of spediniens. 



CIRCUS CYANEQS HUDSONIOUS, {Linn.) Schl. 



Marsh Harrier. 



Common throughout the region surveyed, and in the vicinity of the 

 streams and wooded parts of the country the most abundant of all the 

 Hawks, not even excepting Swainson's Buzzard. A nest was discovered 

 at Pembina, June 3, on the ground in the midst of the wild-rose patch 

 that generally reaches out from the timber to the prairie. The nest was 

 about a foot in diameter and a fourth as much in depth, with very slight 



