The Burrowing Owl 



STRAGGLERS of this species are occasionally reported from any 

 of the northern tier of states in winter, but it is only upon the occasion 

 of widely concerted movement that general attention is drawn to their 

 presence. Such an extended flight occurred in the East in the winter 

 of 1901-2, when information of the capture of more than four hundred 

 specimens was compiled by Mr. Ruthven Deane. The last general 

 movement in the Pacific Northwest occurred in the winter of 1896-7, and 

 it was this invasion which supplied us with our first explicit records 

 of the bird's occurrence in California. A specimen was taken near 

 Alameda on the 2nd of December, 1896, and three were shot in Sonoma 

 County at about the same time. A correspondent of the San Francisco 

 Chronicle, under date of December 8, reported the occurrence of Snowy 

 Owls "in flocks" in Humboldt County. 



Another movement, less extensive, was noted in the winter of 1916-17; 

 and a specimen, an adult female, taken November 1st, 1916, in Del Norte 

 County by Wesley Cooper, and prepared by C. I. Clay, of Eureka, is 

 now in the M. C. O. collection. There is even a Santa Cruz record, of 

 uncertain date, and we may suppose that other such occurrences have only 

 escaped record. 



No opportunity is ever lost of killing one of these handsome mid- 

 winter visitors; and one might suppose, from the number of specimens 

 which adorn store windows and taxidermists' shops, that the bird is much 

 more common than it really is. 



"The home of the Snowy Owl is on the immense moss- and lichen- 

 covered tundras of the boreal regions, where it leads an easy existence and 

 finds an abundant supply of food during the short Arctic summers. It 

 hunts its prey at all hours and subsists principally upon the lemming, and 

 it is said to be always abundant wherever these mammals are found in 

 any numbers. Small rodents are also caught, as well as Ptarmigan, Ducks, 

 and other water fowl, and even the Arctic hare, an animal fully as heavy 

 again as these Owls, is said to be successfully attacked and killed by 

 them" (Bendire). 



No. 220 



Burrowing Owl 



A. O. U. No. 378. Speotyto cunicularia hypogaea (Bonaparte). 



Synonyms. — Ground Owl. Billy Owl. Cuckoo Owl. Snake Owl. 



Description. — Adults: Above dull grayish brown (wood-brown, bister, or warm 

 sepia), heavily spotted and commingled with white or pale ochraceous-buff, the spots 

 paired on the larger feathers and defined by adjacent dusky areas, the paired spots 

 enlarged and dissociated toward base of remiges and rectrices; tail thus irregularly 



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