821 
THE EYES OF THE BURROWING OWL 
is in birds with a single fovea placed above and towards the nasal 
aspect of the optic nerve entrance. The owls possess a single, deep 
fovea encircled by a round, sharply defined area located above 
and on the temporal side of the optic disk. This arrangement closely 
approaches the binocular maculae of man. 
The writer gives to the owls a class by itself in describing these 
areae and affirms that the temporal monomacular fundus is found 
almost exclusively in the owls. 
In conjunction with Arthur W. Head, F. Z. S., the South Ameri- 
can Burrowing Owls in the London Zoological Gardens were closely 
studied and examined with the ophthalmoscope. In addition, the 
interior of the eyeball 
both of that type and 
ofseveral North Amer- 
ican individuals were 
examined by the writer 
in prepared specimens. 
The ophthalmo- 
scope in particular 
shows the fundus oculi 
of Speotyto cunicularia 
to be that of a typical 
nocturnal animal. The Lateral View of the Pecten of the Burrowing Owl— 
. r T . , . i, Speotyto cunicularia hypogsea. x 9* 
picture ot this bird s 
background is well shown in the accompanying colored plate, 
painted by Head and faithfully reproduced here. The ocular 
fundus of this species is irregularly round, as in all the owls, and 
in prepared specimens these details show distinctly. 
The single, temporal, oval macular region lies above and about 
a disk length and a half from the upper end of the papilla. In the 
center of the macula is the fovea — a dark pigmented spot with fine 
granules arranged cap-like above it. Outside this, again, is the ovoid 
circumference of this region, incompletely edged with fine dots. 
These are more numerously distributed below the macula than 
above it. Connected with the macular region is a light-colored and 
rather broad band that extends horizontally to the center of the 
visible background. It is unevenly divided into two strips by a 
parallel arrangement of minute pigment dots. 
