190 THE HAWKS AND OWLS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



southern South America, in habiting the i Argentine Republic, Chile, 

 Paraguay, and probablys outhern Brazil. The l^orth American form 

 (Speotyto e. hypogwa) inhabits the plains region of the western part of 

 the continent from British Columbia south to Guatemala, and east to 

 Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory, and Texas. An isolated 

 race (Speotyto c.floridana) inhabits Florida and the adjacent Bahama 

 Islands. Several insular races inhabit the West Indies, where Speotyto 

 c. guadeloupensis is found on the islands of Guadeloupe and Ifevis, 

 Speotyto c. dominicensis on Santo Domingo, and Speotyto c. amaura on 

 Antigua. 



Except in the northern part of its range, where it is migratory in win- 

 ter, the species is resident wherever found. Capt. Bendire states that at 

 Fort Walla Walla, Washington, it returns in spring, about the middle of 

 March, the males, as with other species, coming first. The many state- 

 ments made respecting its supposed habit of hibernation prove to be 

 incorrect, as numbers of careful observers have shown their falsity. Its 

 habit is to forage in calm weatl\er and to collect and store enough food 

 to last through a stormy spell, when it stays in the burrow ; it is this 

 latter fact that has given rise to the erroneous idea that it hibernates. 



In early twilight, when in search of food, this Owl may be seen 

 hovering in the air after the manner of the Sparrow Hawk, and drop- 

 ping on its prey when it is discovered. 



This species not only appropriates the burrows of the prairie dog and 

 ground squirrel for its home, but also feeds upon the young of the 

 former as well as the adult and young of the latter. That it will kill 

 and eat the larger species of spermophiles has been clearly demonstrated 

 by Capt. Bendire, and the folio win g is an account of his experiment : " In 

 this vicinity [Walla Walla] these owls seem to live to a gi'eat extent 

 on that pest of the farmer, Townsend's Ground Squirrel {Spermophilus 

 richardsoni townsendii Allen), which would be much more destructive 

 if not kept down by these owls. In order to satisfy myself that they 

 were actually able to kill adult squirrels, I trapped several and placed 

 them alive (they had been caught in a wire trap and were not at all 

 injured) in a room with a pair of these owls. As soon as noticed by 

 the latter one of them would fasten its talons into the squirrel's back, 

 and with a few well-directed strokes of its beak, break the vertebrae 

 of the neck and eat the head of the squirrel, often before the latter 

 was quite dead; yet the remainder of the body was usually left and 

 devotired later. I was surprised to see how easily thiey killed these 

 squirrels, which made scarcely any resistance. Aside from these, their 

 diet seems to consist of different species of mice, pocket gophers, as 

 well as of crickets, grasshoppers, and occasionally even of fish. It is 

 astonishing how much one of these o^ls will eat in a day, amounting 

 often to considerably more than their own weight." (Ornithologist 

 and Oologist, vol. vi, 1881, pp. 41, 42.) 



Almost all species of mice which are common where the Owl abounds 

 furnish at certain times of the year a considerable proportion of its 



