OWLS 
261 
warblers, jays, and many others, hurry with anxious cheeps to the spot, 
from the deep tangles of the brush, the middle thicket of the branches 
overhead, or even the topmost tip of the giant yellow pines, and press in 
excited review about the alarum. With this call, bird study is made most 
easy in the difficult country of British Columbia, and no ornithologist 
there can afford not to learn it. If another Pygmy Owl hears the call, it 
comes immediately to challenge the intruder, sometimes two come together, 
find in each other the opponent they were seeking, and join in furious if 
elf-like combat. This is not direct evidence of the bird’s food habits, but 
is a good indication, and suggests that it is only its exceedingly diminutive 
size that limits its power of destruction and excludes it from the short list 
of wholly obnoxious birds of prey. 
Economic Status. The examination of six stomachs of southwestern birds 
showed insects and lizards in two of them, a white-footed mouse in another. 
Evidently, besides the bird-eating proclivities suggested by the preceding 
paragraph, it eats some insects, and is a mouser as would be expected. 
378. Burrowing Owl. billy owl. la chouette a terrier. Speotyto cuni- 
cuLaria. L, 9-50. Plate XXXIII B. A small, round-headed, stumpy-bodied, long- 
legged owl, of light brown, or sandy, and white coloration, of rather indefinite pattern. 
Distinctions. Small size, round head, bare toes, and legs only scantily feathered in 
front (much similar to Figure 379b), and pale, Bandy coloration make this species unmis- 
takable. 
Field Marks. A small, sandy-coloured ground owl, inhabiting open prairie country; 
short stumpy body and long legs are easily recognizable in life. 
Nesting. In holes made in the ground of the open prairie by gophers, badgers, or 
other animals. 
Distribution. Western United States from southern Canada to Mexico, east in the 
south, to Florida and the islands of the Gulf of Mexico. In Canada, across the southern 
boundary, north to about the Canadian Pacific main line in the three Prairie Provinces, 
and the southern ends of the valleys in the interior of British Columbia. There are several 
records for Vancouver Island. 
SUBSPECIES. The Canadian form is the Western Burrowing Owl (la Chouette a 
terrier de l’Ouest) Speotyto cunicularia hypogaea that inhabits most of the United States. 
A very odd little owl, and the one around which has grown the myth 
of living in friendly harmony in the same burrow with prairie dogs and 
rattlesnakes. It can often be seen standing in the bright warm sun, a 
round bunch of feathers with long, un-owl-like legs, perched on the little 
mound of earth thrown up from its burrow, or on some small commanding 
elevation nearby. When disturbed it flies off with a musical little whistle 
or gradually disappears backwards down into the depths of the ground, the 
last thing seen in the darkness of the tunnel being the reflections from its 
bright, yellow eyes. About the burrow, vast numbers of weathering pellets 
may be seen. Examination shows that the majority of these are mouse 
and small rodent remains, but in British Columbia, where the Poor-will is 
common in Burrowing Owl country, its woody-brown mottled plumage is 
commonly intermixed with the mammal remains, showing that small birds 
are acceptable when opportunity for taking them presents itself, and also 
that those that haunt the night suffer from the creatures of darkness. 
Economic Status. Of 32 stomachs examined in southern United States, 
30 contained insects; 3, small mammals; and 3, lizards. That this is 
not a complete story, for Canada at least, is shown by the formerly men- 
tioned regurgitated pellets about the nest-holes, but very little harm can 
be charged against the species, and there is much to its credit. 
