BURROWING OWL. 
121 
one burrow, yet we are well assured by Pike and others, that a common 
danger often drives them into the same excavation, where lizards and 
rattlesnakes also enter for concealment and safety. 
The note of our bird is strikingly similar to the cry of the Marmot, 
which sounds like cheh, cheh, pronounced several times in rapid succession. 
Its food appears to consist entirely of insects, as, on examination of its 
stomach, nothing but parts of their hard wing-cases were found. 
Burrowing Owl, Strix cunicularia, Say, in Long’s Exped., vol. i. p. 200. 
Burrowing Owl, Strix cunicularia , Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 68. 
Burrowing Owl, Strix cunicularia, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 264. 
Burrowing Owl, Strix cunicularia, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 118. 
Feet rather long, slender ; tarsus covered with short soft feathers, of 
which the shafts only remain toward the lower part ; toes short, their 
upper surface covered with bristles or the shafts of feathers ; tail short, 
arched, narrow, slightly rounded. Bill greyish-yellow ; claws black. 
General colour of upper parts light yellowish-brown, or umber-brown, 
spotted with white ; the quills with triangular reddish-white spots from 
the margins of both webs, there being five on each web of the first ; the 
tail similarly barred, there being on the middle feathers four double spots, 
and the tips of all white. Face greyish-white ; throat and ruff white, 
succeeded by a mottled brown band, beneath which is a patch of white ; 
the rest of the lower parts yellowish-white, with broad bars of light 
reddish-brown, which are closer on the sides of the breast ; abdomen, 
lower tail-coverts, and legs without spots. 
Male, 10, 24. Female, 11. 
Genus II.— ULULA. NIGHT-OWL. 
Bill short, strong, very deep, its upper outline decurved from the base ; 
lower mandible abruptly rounded, with a notch on each side. Nostrils 
broadly elliptical, rather large. Conch of ear very large, elliptical, 
extending from the base of the lower jaw to near the top of the head, with 
an anterior semicircular operculum in its whole length. Feet rather 
short, strong ; tarsi and toes covered with very soft downy feathers. 
Plumage full, and very soft ; facial disks complete. Wings rather long, 
very broad, much rounded, the third quill longest ; the filaments of the 
first, half of the second, and the terminal part of the third, free and 
recurved. Tail of moderate length, arched, slightly rounded. 
Yol. I. 18 
