32 ASIONIDJE. 



Orizaba (Sumichrast^), Puebla (Boucard), Playa Vicente {M. Trujillo), Tehu- 

 antepec, Chimalapa ( W. B. Richardson), Juchitan ^^ Cacoprieto [Sumichrast ^) ; 

 Guatemala, Chiapam ^, San Jose de Guatemala, Dueiias, San Geronimo ^°, 

 Lanquinio {0.S.& F. D. G.). — South America generally to Argentina and Chili. 



The typical form of this Owl is found in Chili, and the birds from that country are, 

 as a rule, larger than those from other parts of its range. Chiefly on this account the 

 North- American birds have been separated as belonging to a distinct race under the 

 name of S. hypogoea. They are rather small, but do not differ materially from southern 

 birds, individuals from the extreme limits of the range being practically undistin- 

 guishable so far as colour is concerned, and the difference in size is but slight. The 

 most distinct forms we have seen are S. cunicularia guadaloupensis of Eidgway and the 

 Florida bird, and these two seem capable of definition. 



S. cunicularia, as we prefer to call this Owl, is found in all suitable localities 

 throughout Mexico, from the sea-shore at Mazatlan and the Tres Marias Islands to 

 open country in the mountains ; but though it has not been observed in the Valley of 

 Mexico, Jouy saw their mounds spread over a considerable portion of a barren plain in 

 San Luis Potosi ^^. Grayson noticed it along the open sea-beach at night on the 

 Tres Marias Islands, where it was in search of small crabs which formed its chief 

 subsistence. It was in a similar place that one was observed by us near Champerico, 

 on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, sitting at the opening of a burrow in the sand ^. 

 In the interior of Guatemala it is by no means common, and only on a few occasions 

 came under our observation. Specimens were secured at Duenas and San Geronimo, 

 and one was found lying in a decayed state on the thatch of an Indian rancho in 

 the village of Lanquin ^'^. All these places are in open country. We have no record of 

 the occurrence of ^S'. cunicularia in any other part of Central America, though it can 

 hardly fail to occur in suitable places, seeing that it reappears in Colombia, and is 

 found in many places over a wide area in the more open country of South America. 

 It flies frequently by day as well as by night, and its food chiefly consists, at least in 

 inland countries, of small mammals. The story of its living peacefully in the same 

 burrow with prairie-dogs and rattlesnakes is now wholly discredited. 



There is a good description of the habits of the Floridan form by Mr. S. N. Khoads 

 in the volume of the 'Auk' for 1892, p. 1. 



GLAUCIDIUM. 



Glaucidium, Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 970 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. ii. p. 188. 



Glaucidium is a genus of very wide distribution, which includes a large portion of 

 the Old World as far east as the Indo-Malayan subregion ; but it is not represented in 

 New Guinea or any part of the Austro-Malayan subregion or in Australia, or any of 

 the islands of the Pacific Ocean. In America it is spread over nearly the whole of the 



