1 18 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
house in the large town of Cincinnati. In South Caro- 
lina, Dr. Garden saw them occasionally, and they were, 
in this mild region, observed to hide themselves during 
the day in the Palmetto groves of the sea-coast, and only 
sallied out towards night in quest of their prey. Their 
habits, therefore, seem to vary considerably according to 
circumstances and climate. According to Temminck 
they nest among the steepest rocks, or upon the old pine 
trees of the glacial regions, and lay 2 eggs of a pure 
white. According to Vieillot, they are spotted with 
black, but these were probably the eggs of the Great 
Grey Owl (&, cinerea ), another nocturnal inhabitant of 
Hudson’s Bay. 
The length of the female of this species is 2 feet 2 inches or up- 
wards (according to Wilson the male is only 22J inches), and 4 feet 
6 inches in the stretch of the wings. The iris bright yellow. The 
claws black. The female more spotted than the male ; the latter only 
becoming wholly white by age. The young , as they issue from the 
nest, are cohered with a brown down > the first feathers also are of 
a pale brown. 
BURROWING OWL. 
( Strix cunicularia , Molina. Bonap. Am. Orn. i. p. 68. pi. 7. fig. 2. 
Philad. Museum, No. 472.) 
Sfec. Charact. — Cinnamon-grey spotted with whitish; beneath 
whitish, spotted with cinnamon-brown ; tail even, reaching but 
little beyond the wings ; feet covered with short, scattered bris- 
tles. 
It is to Mr. Say that we are indebted for the first au- 
thentic materials towards establishing the character of 
this remarkable species of Owl, which was known even 
to Molina as a resident in Chili, and by Father Feuillee 
as indigenous to the plains of Peru. In these countries, 
as well as in St. Domingo, where Vieillot observed it, it 
