192 PARROTS AND PAROQUETS 



Unlike the pygmy owls the elf owls are nocturnal, spending the 

 day either in thickets or old woodpecker holes. Major Bendire says 

 they become active soon after sundow^n. He has had them come to 

 his camp, attracted probably by the insects which gathered about 

 the guard fire through the night. 



When resting in the daytime the little owls are not too stupid to 

 protect themselves, as is shown by a curious experience Mr. F. 

 Stephens had with one. He startled the owl in a willow thicket, and 

 when he found it in the dense tangle, as he says, it was "sitting on 

 a branch with its face tow^ard me and its wing held up, shield fash- 

 ion, before its face. I could just see its e3^es over the wing, and 

 liad it kept them shut I might have overlooked it, as they first 

 attracted my attention. It had drawn itself into the smallest possi- 

 ble compass so that its head formed the widest part of its outline. 

 I moved around a little to get a better chance to shoot, as the bush 

 was very thick, but whichever way I went, the wing w^as always 

 interposed, and when I retreated far enough for a fair shot, I could 

 not tell the bird from the surrounding bunches of leaves. At length, 

 losing patience, I fired at random and it fell. Upon going to pick it 

 up I was surprised to find another w^hich I had not seen before, and 

 which must have been struck by a stray shot." (Quoted by Bendire.) 



ORDER PSITTACI: PARROTS, MACAWS, 

 PAROQUETS, ETC. 



FAMILY PSITTACID^ : PARROTS AND PAROQUETS. 



GENUS RHYNCHOPSITTA. 



382.1. Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha {Swains.). Thick- 

 billed Parrot. 



Bill large, tip of lower mandible elongated, cut off, and flattened ; tail 

 graduated for about one third its leng-th ; cere densely feathered, conceal- 

 ing' the nostrils. Adults : bill blackish, body green except for poppy red on 

 forepart of head and wings, and lemon yellow under wing coverts. Young : 

 similar, but bill mainly whitish and red restricted. Length : 16.00-16.75, 

 wing 8.50-10.50, tail 6.80-7.00, graduated for 2.25-2.35. 



Distribution. — Mountains bordering tablelands of Mexico ; northward 

 casually to the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona. 



A flock of nine or ten thick-billed parrots seen by Mr. Lusk in the 

 Chiricahua Mountains came, as he says, scolding, chattering, and 

 calling up a canyon to the edge of the pinon pine belt, where they 

 devoted themselves to getting the pinones. " Investigation of their 

 stomachs," he says, " showed nothing but a plentiful quantity of 

 very immature pifiones wrested from their cavities in the hearts of 

 the hard, green cones by their powerful beaks." 



