224 
ORDERS OP BIRDS— BIRDS OF PREY 
bination cover practically the whole of North 
America down to Costa Rica. By reason of the 
live food available in winter, these birds are not 
migratory. 
The Snowy Owl 1 is a bird of the Arctic 
wastes, and reaches the northern United States 
only as a winter visitor. Its occurrence with us 
varies from a total scarcity during some years to 
an abundance during others. During December, 
1886, — the beginning of the awful winter which 
killed over 90 per cent of the range cattle in 
Montana, — we saw in the country in which we 
Photo, by C. William Beebe, N. Y. Zoological Park. 
SNOWY OWL. 
were hunting buffalo, in central Montana, at 
least twenty-five Snowy Owls. They were liv- 
ing on hares, rabbits, and sage-grouse, out in the 
open, twenty miles from the nearest timber. It 
was their habit to alight upon the tops of the 
low buttes, in reality upon the ground, from 
which they could survey a wide circle of sage- 
brush plains. Whenever there is an annual 
“flight” of Snowy Owls, they are always par- 
ticularly numerous in Minnesota. 
But for its perfectly round and rather comical- 
looking head, this bird would be the most beau- 
tiful of all American owls. Its plumage varies 
1 Nyc'te-a nyc'te-a. Average length, about 23 
inches, the female being larger than the male. 
from almost spotless snow-white, in some indi- 
viduals, to white barred all over with narrow 
horizontal bands of black — which is really 
the standard color-plan. The number and width 
of the black bands vary exceedingly in differ- 
ent individuals, some birds being rendered much 
darker than others. 
The food of this species consists of every kind 
of wild bird or small mammal it can catch; but 
there is no evidence that it ever destroys poul- 
try. In summer, when its far-northern home 
is full of migratory birds, nesting and rearing 
their young, its bill of fare is quite varied, but 
in winter it is confined to such winter residents 
as the ptarmigan, hare, rabbit, sage-grouse, and 
such small rodents as dare to venture forth from 
their burrows. 
With the Burrowing Owl 2 of the western 
plains, the Owl Family may justly be regarded 
as “run to earth.” This odd little owl indeed 
takes shelter in the mouths of prairie-" dog ” 
holes, but as far as I am aware there is no proof 
that it ever descends to the bottom of a deep 
burrow, or that it is chummy with the rattle- 
snake. It is reasonably certain that no owl in 
its right mind ever would fraternize with a 
rattlesnake, and neither would a prairie-" dog.” 
The Burrowing Owl lives in the plains of the 
West and Southwest, from North Dakota to 
southern California. A closely related species 
is found in Florida, where it easily digs burrows 
in the sandy soil. 
Many persons have the idea that this Owl is 
unable to dig, and is therefore dependent upon 
prairie-" dogs ” and badgers for a home. This is 
entirely erroneous. In soil that is reasonably 
loose, the Burrowing Owl is a most industrious 
and successful digger, and with his feet flings 
out the loose dirt and gravel in a shower. A 
pair of western birds which we kept in the Bird- 
House of the New York Zoological Park for two 
years burrowed so deeply into the big pile of 
solid gravel in their enclosure that its interior 
became a perfect cavern. 
In the land of plains and prairie-" dogs,” the 
Burrowing Owl is a frequent corollary to a " dog” 
town, sitting on the highest point of a burrow 
mound, or, if alarmed, taking short flights to the 
suburbs. Between bird and rodent there ap- 
2 Spe-ot'i-to cu-nic-u-la' ri-a hy-po'gce-a. Average 
length, about 10 inches. 
