30 
STRIX CUN ICUL ARIA. 
approaches the nest during 1 the period of rearing the 
young, the parents evince the greatest alarm, hovering 
around, and expressing their anxiety by repeating the 
syllables, geg, geg, gag ; or ge, ge, ne, ge, ge. . Crows 
manifest a particular hostility to this species, and 
destroy numbers of their nests. 
The hen-harrier is widely spread over both continents, 
perhaps more than any other land bird, though it is no 
where remarkably numerous. In the northern countries 
of America, it is a migratory species, extending its 
wanderings from Florida to Hudson’s Bay. It is not 
known to breed in the Northern, or even in the Middle 
States, where the adults are but rarely seen. In the 
Southern parts of the Union, and especially in Florida, 
they are rather common in all their varieties of plumage. 
The species is also found inutile West Indies, Caj^enne, 
and probably has an extensive range in South America. 
It is found throughout Britain, Germany, Italy, the 
north of Africa, and the northern portion of Asia. It 
is very common in France and the Netherlands, is found 
in Russia and Sweden, but does not inhabit the north 
of Norway, being by no means an Arctic bird. It is 
.again met with in the southern parts of Africa, near 
the Cape of Good Hope, and is not uncommon all along 
the eastern coast of that continent. In Switzerland, 
and other mountainous countries, it is of very rare 
occurrence. 
GENUS III. — STRIX, Linnjeus. 
4. STRIX CUNICULARIA , MOLINA. —BURROWING OWL, BONAP. 
BONAPARTE, PLATE VII. FIG. II. 
Venerable ruins, crumbling under the influence of 
time and vicissitudes of season, are habitually associated 
with our recollections of the owl ; or he is considered 
as the tenant of sombre forests, whose nocturnal gloom 
is rendered deeper and more awful by the harsh dis- 
sonance of his voice. In poetry he has long been 
regarded as the appropriate concomitant of darkness 
and horror; and, when heard screaming from the top- 
