38 Expedition to the 



the descriptions of the above mentioned authors of the Co- 

 quimbo owl, we have thought proper to subjoin such parti- 

 culars as seem necessary to be noted in addition to the de- 

 scription already given by those authors.* 



The" general colour is a light burnt brown, spotted with 

 white; the larger feathers five or six banded, with white, each 

 band more or less widely interrupted by the shaft, and their 

 immediate margins, darker than the other portions of the 

 feather; the tips of these feathers are white or whitish; the 

 exterior primary feather is serrated, shorter than the three 

 succeeding ones, and equal in length to the filth; the bill is 

 tinged with yellow on the ridges of both mandibles; the tarsi 

 and feet distinctly granulated, the former naked behind, fur- 

 nished before near the base with dense short feathers, which 

 towards the toes become less crowded, and assume the form 

 of single hairs, these on the toes are absolutely setaceous and 

 scattered; the lobes beneath the toes are large and granulated. 



In the plains about our encampment, were several natural 

 mounds, greatly resembling some of the artificial works so 

 common in the central portions of the great valley of the 

 Mississippi. About the summits of these mounds were nu- 

 merous petrifactions, which were found to be almost exclu- 

 sively casts of bivalve shells, approaching the genus Cytherea, 

 and usually from one half to one and an half inches in dia- 

 meter. 



On the evening of the fifteenth, finding all our stock of 

 meat injured by too long keeping, four men were sent out on 

 horseback to hunt. At the distance of six miles from camp, 

 they found a solitary bison, which they killed, but conclu- 

 ding from its extreme leanness and the ill savour of the flesh, 

 tha,t the animal was diseased, they took no part of it. On 

 the following morning they returned unsuccessful. We 



■' We hare to regret that the plan of this work, will not admit of the in- 

 troduction of figures, of the manj interesting animals that were obtained, 

 described, and delineated during the expedition. 



