330 
BURROWING OWL. 
no figure has hitherto been published, and we cannot well un- 
derstand why Vieillot did not thus exemplify so interesting a 
bird. Our figure will be the more acceptable to ornitholo- 
gists, as it is the first which has been given of the burrowing 
owl : in the distance we have introduced a view of the prairie 
dog village. 
The peculiar subgenus of this bird has not hitherto been de- 
termined, owing to the neglect with which naturalists have 
treated the arrangement of extra-European owls. Like all 
diurnal owls, our bird belongs to the subgenus Noctua of Sa- 
vigny, having small oval openings to the ears, which are des- 
titute of operculum, the facial disk of slender feathers small 
and incomplete, and the outer edges of the primaries not re- 
curved ; but it differs from them in not having the tarsus and 
toes covered by long thick feathers. 
The burrowing owl is nine inches and a half long, and two 
feet in extent. The bill is horn colour, paler on the margin, 
and yellow on the ridges of both mandibles ; the inferior man- 
dible is strongly notched on each side : the capistrum before 
the eyes terminates in black rigid bristles, as long as the bill : 
the irides are bright yellow. The general colour of the plu- 
mage is a light burnt-umber, spotted with whitish, paler on the 
head, and upper part of the neck ; the lower part of the breast 
and belly are whitish, the feathers of the former being banded 
with brown: the inferior tail-coverts are white immaculate. 
The wings are darker than the body, the feathers being much 
spotted and banded with whitish ; the primaries are five or six 
banded, each band being more or less widely interrupted near 
the shaft, and margined with blackish, wdiich colour predomi- 
nates towards the tip ; the extreme tip is dull whitish ; the 
shafts are brown above, and white beneath : the exterior pri- 
mary is finely serrated, and equal in length to the fifth, the 
second and fourth being hardly shorter than the third, which 
is the longest. The tail is very short, slightly rounded, having 
its feathers of the same colour as the primaries, and like them 
five or six banded, but more purely white at tip. The feet are 
