BURROWING OWL. 267 



rains, while the neat and well-preserved mansion of the Marmot shew- 

 ed the active care of a skilful and industrious owner. We have no 

 evidence that the Owl and Marmot habitually resort to one burrow, 

 yet we are well assured by Pike and others, that a common danger of- 

 ten drives them into the same excavation, where lizards and rattle- 

 snakes also enter for concealment and safety. 



The note of our bird is strikingly similar to the cry of the Marmot, 

 which sounds like cheh, cheh, pronounced several times in rapid suc- 

 cession. — Its food appears to consist entirely of insects, as, on examina- 

 tion of its stomach, nothing but parts of their hard wing-cases were 

 found." 



Sxaix cuNicuLAHiA, €hnd. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 292. — Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. 

 p. 63. 



Burrowing Owl, Strix cunicularia, Say in Long's Exped. to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, vol. i. p. 200. — Cli Bonap. Amer. Ornith. vol. i. p. 68, pi. vii, fig. 2. 



Burrowing Owl, NuttaU, Manual, vol. 1. p. 118. 



Adult Male. Plate CCCCXXXII. Fig. 1. ' 



Bill short, stout, broader than high at the base, its dorsal outline 

 decurved in its whole length, the sides of the upper mandible sloping 

 and "slightly convex, the ridge rather narrow, the tip compressed, de- 

 curved, acute ; lower mandible with the angle long and wide, the dor- 

 sal line convex, the edges sharp and inflected, with a notch close to 

 the truncate tip ; the gape-line straight, at the end decurved. Nostrils 

 rather small, elliptical oblique, in the fore part of a tumid portion of 

 the cere. Eyes large. Aperture of ear large, but for an Owl small, 

 being elliptical and four and a half twelfths long, without operculum. 



Head very large ; neck short ; body slender. Feet rather long, 

 slender ; tarsus roundish, scaly, but covered with short soft feathers, of 

 which the shafts only remain towards the lower part ; toes short, tu- 

 bercularly scaly with two scutella at the end, and having bristles or the 

 shafts of feathers scattered over their upper surface ; the first toe much 

 shorter than the outer, which is itself shorter than the inner. Claws 

 slightly curved, long, rather slender, compressed, tapering to a fine point 

 when not blunted from use, that of the middle toe as broad as high. 



Plumage full, soft, and rather downy ; the feathers ovate ; those on 

 the face linear, stiffish, with loose barbs, and disposed in two disks 

 surrounding the eyes, but incomplete above ; between the eye and the 



