Pygmy Owl 213 



noticed an extra chamber off the passage, which he 

 supposed was for the male bird. The eggs are laid on 

 a bed of horse or cow droppings, broken up fine, and 

 there is usually an accumulation of food-remains, and 

 other filth as well, while the whole spot swarms with 

 fleas and is very ill-smelling. The eggs number from 

 seven to nine ; they are rounded ovates in shape, and 

 pure white in colour when clean, though usually very 

 nest-soiled. They measure about 1'3 x 1"1. Gale 

 found fresh eggs from May 10th to 20th ; Dille gives 

 May 22nd, while Bendire states that fresh eggs have 

 been found at Fort Collins as late as July 1st. 



A set of five eggs in the Colorado College Museum, 

 presented by I, C. Hall, were taken by him near Greeley, 

 May 10th, 1903. They were found at the end of a prairie- 

 dog's hole, seven feet long and a foot deep, and were 

 placed on a bed of horse manure. A large toad was 

 also found in the hole. 



Genus GLAUCIDIUM. 



Small Owls, wing under 4-0 ; facial disk hardly developed ; no ear- 

 tufts ; ear-openings nornial ; nostrils circular, opening well within tho 

 cere ; wing short and rounded ; tail long, slightly rounded, about f 

 of wing ; tarsus densely feathered ; toes bristly. 



A large genus of small Owls chiefly met with in the Tropics, with 

 three species and one subspecies in the United States, 



Pygmy Owl. Glaucidium gnoma. 



A.O.U. CheckUst no 379 — Colorado Records — Ridgway 73, pp. 185, 

 195 ; Henshaw 85, p. 79 ; H. G. Smith 87, p. 284 ; 96, p. 76 ; Morrison 

 88, p. 115 ; 89, p. 67 ; Kellogg 90, p. 90 ; Bendire 92, p. 403 ; Lowe 

 94, p. 268 ; Cooke 97, pp. 81, 161, 206 ; Henderson 03, p. 235 ; 09, 

 p. 230 ; Oilman 07, p. 154. 



Description. — Above slaty-brown, with small round spots of white 

 on the head and larger ones on the wing-coverts ; a collar of mixed 

 white and black round the back of the neck ; wing- and tail-quills a 

 duskier brown, marked with white spots on both webs ; chin and fore- 

 breast white, separated by a brown band ; rest of the under-parts white, 



