HORNED OWLS, ETC.: BURROWING OWL 
327 
One of the little fellows that Mr. Frank Stephens surprised in an 
elder bush turned its side to him and drawing itself down into the 
smallest possible compass raised a wing as a protectively colored shield 
which it held before its face, only its eyes showing above the feathers, 
turning as he turned—wise little namesake of Pallas (in Brewster, 1882b, 
p. 28 ). 
Additional Literature.—Brown, Herbert,-A uk, XX, 43-45, 1903.— Gilman 
M. F., Condor, XI, 149-150, 1909.— Willard, F. C., Condor, XIV, 55, 59, 1912. 
BURROWING OWL: Speotyto cunicularia hypogaea (Bonaparte) 
Plate 34 
Description.— Length: 9 to 11 inches, wing 5.8-7.2, tail 3.1-3.5, bill .5-6 
tarsus 1.7-1.9. Head without ear-tufts , facial disc incomplete, tail short, legs very 
long, nearly bare, toes bristly. Adults: Upperparts dull brown, spotted and barred 
with white and buffy; wings and tail barred with white, line over eye, chin, and throat 
white; underparts mainly buffy, barred with brown; iris yellow. Young: Upperparts 
mainly plain brownish, wing and tail coverts largely buff, and underparts mainly 
buff with dark throat band and shaded sides of chest. 
Range.— Plains region from British Columbia to Manitoba and south to Louisi¬ 
ana and Panama; migratory north of Oregon and northern Kansas. 
State Records. —The earliest record of the Burrowing Owl in New Mexico is 
August 7, 1820, when Titian R. Peale, of Major Long’s Expedition to the Rocky 
Mountains, killed one near the junction of the Mora and Canadian Rivers, in north¬ 
eastern New Mexico. A few' days before the party had dined on badger and a 
young owl—presumably of this species (in James, 1823, p. 97). As is usual, the 
Burrowing Owls are most commonly found in or near the prairie dog towns, but they 
are not so common as the prairie dog and there are many of the dog towms where the 
Owls are not in evidence. They breed from the lowest parts of the State, as at 
Carlsbad (Bailey), Roswell (Gaut), and Mesilla (Merrill), below' 4,000 feet, to the 
foothills of the mountains, at Silver City, 5,S57 feet (Kellogg), and w'ere found at 
about 6,000 feet near Koehler Junction, July 28-October 24, 1913 (Kalmbach); 
[at Raton, June 25-28, 1916 (Howarth)]; at 8,000 feet as at Halls Peak (Barber).' 
Between these limits they are found locally throughout the State. [Fairly com¬ 
mon in northern Santa Fe County. A small colony w r as found near Santa Cruz, 
May 9, 1920, with two sets of eggs. A few' scattered pairs nest on the Pinyon Flat, 
near Santa Fe (Jensen, 1922). In the Animas Valley a pair was seen at the nesting 
burrow May 8, 1920; in the Pecos Valley, from Roswell to Fort Sumner, June 16-21, 
1918, they were generally distributed and nesting; and they were common on the 
open flats about Dunlap where they were apparently nesting (Ligon).l 
Some were seen near Tularosa, December 23, 1902; a month later they were still 
present at the Gold Camp in the southern part of the San Andres Mountains (Gaut), 
and January 28, were found at Mesilla Park (Ford); in the vicinity of the Carlsbad 
Bird Reserve, they were common, January, 1915, and were noted below' the reserve 
in the winter of 1915-16 (Willett), showing that at least in the valleys of New Mexico 
some individuals remain through the winter.—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Usually at the end of an old burrow of prairie dog, badger, or other 
animal. Eggs: 6 to 11, white. 
Food. —Immense numbers of noxious insects such as grasshoppers, crickets, 
beetles; and scorpions, centipedes, mice, kangaroo rats, ground squirrels, young 
prairie dogs, and rarely, insectivorous birds; also fruit and seeds. 
