NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 203 



oval in shape, more pointed at one end ; sizes I.I7X .87, i.iSx .90 ; the 

 larger specimen is more pointed. Incubation was far advanced, and 

 the embroyos were extracted with difficulty.* These eggs belong to 

 P. g. californica. 



381. Micrathene whitneyi (COOPER.) [4".] 



Elf Owl. 



Hab. Southern Arizona, Southeastern California, Lower California, south to Southern Mexico. 



One of the smallest of all raptorial birds, first discovered by Dr. J. 

 G. Cooper, the type specimen being an adult male, taken near Fort 

 Mohave, California, April 26, 1861. Others were afterwards taken by 

 Col. Grayson on islands off the western coast of Mexico. Capt. Bendire 

 took several specimens in the dense mesquite thickets, near Rillito 

 Creek, about seven miles from Tucson, Arizona, in April, 1872. He 

 also found one of their nests with fully fledged young in a hole of a 

 mesquite stump. 



This Owl was found to be common by Mr. F. Stephens in the 

 desert region about Tucson and Camp Lowell. Mr. W. E. D. Scott 

 states that it is decidedly the commonest Owl breeding in Southern 

 Arizona (Pima, Final and Gila counties), and is very abundant during 

 the breeding time, nesting in the woodpecker holes of the giant cactus. 

 The eggs range from two to four in number, ordinarily three. Mr. 

 Scott took a set of five from a nest. On one occasion, near Fuller's 

 Ranch, about the last of May, 1883, Mr. Stephens and Mr. Scott col- 

 lected a large number of the birds and their eggs in a few hours. Mr. 

 Walter E. Bryant has a set of two eggs taken near Tucson, Arizona, 

 May 28, 1885, by Mr. Herbert Brown. The nest was in an abandoned 

 woodpecker's hole, in a cactus about twenty feet from the ground ; 

 the cavity was about eight or nine inches deep. The eggs measure 

 26.5x23.5, 26 x 22.5 mm. f Mr. Emerson has a set of three, taken by 

 Mr. Stephens near Camp Lowell, May 24, 1884. They were found in 

 a woodpecker's burrow in a giant cactus, ten feet from the ground. 

 The sizes are 27 x 23, 26 x 23 mm. J Mr. Norris has a set of three eggs 

 collected near Camp Lowell. They are pure white and nearly globular, 

 and measure I.O4X.93, 1.09 x. 91, i.iax.gi. These were taken from 

 a woodpecker's hole in a giant cactus twenty feet from the ground. 



'"Bull. Nutt Club, Vol. IV, pp. 86-87. An account of these eggs and this nest was also published by 

 Capt. Charles Bendire in Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XIX, p. 232. 

 1 1.04 x. 93, 1.02 x. 89. 

 1 1.06 x. 91, 1.02 x. 91, 1.06 x. 91. 



