68 
BURROWING OWL. 
STRIX CUNICULARIA. 
Plate VII. Fig. 2. 
Strix eunicularia, Molina, Hist. Chili, (Am. ed.) I, p. 184. Gmel. Syst. I, p. 192, Sp. 
28. Lath. Ind. p. 63, Sp. 38. Yjeill. Ois. de VAm. Sept. I, p. 48. Say, in Long's 
Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, II, p. 36 and 200. 
Ulula eunicularia, Feuillee, Journ. Ohs. Phys. p. 562. 
Noctua coquimbana, Briss. Av. I, p. 525, Sp. 11. 
Coquimbo Owl, Lath. Syn. I, p. 145, Sp. 33. 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 472. 
Venerable ruins, crumbling under the influence of time and vicis¬ 
situdes 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 dissonance of his voice. In poetry he has long been regarded 
as the appropriate concomitant of darkness and horror; and, when 
heard screaming from the topmost fragments of some mouldering 
wall, whose ruggedness is but slightly softened by the mellowing 
moonlight, imagination loves to view him as a malignant spirit, 
hooting triumphantly over the surrounding desolation! But we 
are now to make the reader acquainted with an owl to which 
none of these associations can belong; a bird that, so far from 
seeking refuge in the ruined habitations of man, fixes its residence 
within the earth; and, instead of concealing itself in solitary re¬ 
cesses of the forest, delights to dwell on open plains, in company 
with animals remarkable for their social disposition, neatness, and 
order. Instead of sailing heavily forth in the obscurity of the 
evening or morning twilight, and then retreating to mope away 
