32 ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE. 



may every day be observed in the Pampas ; but in the northern hemisphere they 

 inhabit the burrows of the Marmot or Prairie dog, instead of those of the Bizcacha ; 

 and it would appear that their food is chiefly derived from insects, instead of from 

 small quadrupeds and reptiles. Mr. Gould says he has compared my speci- 

 mens from La Plata and Chile, on opposite sides of the Cordillera, with those 

 from Mexico and the Rocky Mountains of North America, and he cannot perceive 

 the slightest specific difference between them. 



Sub-Fam.— ULULINiE. 

 1. Otus Galapagoensis. Gould. 



Plate III. 

 Otus (Brachyotus) Galapagoensis, Gould, in Proceedings of the Zoological Society, Part V., 1837, p. 10. 



O. fascia circa oculos fuliginosd ; strigd superciliari, plumis nares tangentibus et circa 

 angulum oris, guld et disci facialis margine, albis ; vertice corporeque supra intense 

 stramineo fuscoque variegatis ; primariis ad apicem intense fuscis, ad basin stramineo 

 fasciatis ; corpore subtus stramineo, notis irregularibus fasciisque fuscis ornato ; 

 femoribus tarsisque plumosis rufescenti-stramineis ; rostro unguibusque nigris. 



Long. tot. 13^; rostri, 1 ; aim, 11; caudw, 6; tarsi, 2. 



Colour.— Facial disc ; plumose feathers immediately around the eyes, nearly 

 black, tipped with glossy fulvous ; those nearer the margin are white at their 

 base, and only slightly tipped with a darker brown. Between the eyes a 

 band of small fulvous feathers with a central streak of dark brown, passing 

 backward, blends into the plumage of the nape. Back of head and throat 

 streaked with fulvous and brown, the centre of each feather being brown, 

 and its edge fulvous. Interscapular region and the feathers of the wing, 

 coloured in the same manner, but the fulvous part is indented on each 

 side of the shaft in the brown, giving an obscurely barred appearance to 

 these feathers. Primaries brown, with large rounded marks of fulvous; 

 those on the first feather being smaller, and almost white : wing-coverts brown, 

 and but little mottled. Tail with transverse bars of the same brown and 

 fulvous, the latter colour much clearer and stronger on the external feathers ; 

 in the central ones, the fulvous part includes irregular markings of the dark 

 brown. Under surface.— Throat and breast, with center of each feather 

 brown, edged with fulvous ; the former colour being predominant. On the 

 belly and under tail-coverts the brown coloured marks on the shafts are 

 narrow, but lliey are united to narrow transverse bars, which form at the 



