318 PYGMY OWL G. PASSERINUM VAR. CALIFORNICUM. 



Tlie specimens 1 took at Fort Whipple enabled me to credit the Ter- 

 ritory with this fine little species, before only known in the United 

 States as a bird of California, Oregon, and Washington. It inhabits 

 the ^vhole Pacilic JSloj^e, as now ap[)ears, and extends southward into 

 Mexico. Audubon referred it to iStrix passerhioides, Temniinck, and Mr. 

 Cassin, at first, to *S'. infiiscata of the same author. Both these names 

 appear to have been bestowed upon the same species, which is South 

 American, and entirely different from the Mexican and United States 

 bird, which is more closely allied to the European imsserina. Dr. Sclater 

 proposed, in 1857, to separate the North American from the Mexican, 

 under the name of G. californicum. 



I saw the Pyjimy Owl several times at Fort Whipple, and secured two 

 specimens, which were fortunately male and female. The peculiarly 

 retiring and unobtrusive habits of the Owls renders them difficult of 

 observation, and less frequently met witli than their numbers would 

 lead us to expect. Judging with due regard for this fact, I take it that 

 tbis bird is common in the wooded regions and mountainous por- 

 tions of Arizona. Une of my specimens was moulting ; the other, taken 

 in winter, was in perfect plumage. This warrants the belief that the 

 species is resident about Fort Whipple, and that it breeds there, tliough 

 I was not fortunate enough to discover the nest, which, with the eggs, 

 remains almost unknown, so far as I am aware. It will probably be found 

 to mate and lay very early in the year — in March, if not in February. 

 As a well-known general rule, the Owls breed earlier than most birds, 

 for some unexplained reason, but probably on account of their nocturnal 

 habits, and the quiet seclusion in hollow trees and other sheltered 

 places, in which most of their time is spent. Eemoved in a great meas- 



Surina passerinokJes, AuD., Syn. 1839, 23 ; B. Am. i, 117, pi. 30. 



Glaiicidiiim inftiscatum, Cass., 111. 1854, 189.— Newb., P. R. R. Rep. vi, 1857, 77 (uotof 



Temniinck). 

 Glaucidiiim gnoma, Cass., BaircVs B. N. A. 1858, 62 (not of Wcif;Jcr).—B.KEnM., P. R. R. 



Rep. X, 1859, pt. vi, 31.— Coop. & Suck., N. H. Wash. Ter. 1860, 158.— Cab., J. 



f. O. 1862, 336; Ueb. Berlin. Mus. 1869, 207.— Lokd, Intellect. Observer, 1865, 



409 (biograpbj'). — Coues, Pr. Phila. Acatl. 1866, 50 (Arizona). 

 Glaucidiiim californicum, Sol., P. Z. S. 1857, 4. 

 Glaucidiiim jiakerinum var. californicum, Ridgw., apud Coues, Key, 1872, 206. — Ridgw., 



Pr. Bst. Soc. xvi, 1873,92, 94 (critical examination of. all the forms of the 



genus).— B. B. & R., N. A. B. iii, 1874, 81. 

 Hal). — The true passerinum is Euro])ean. Var. californicum is from the Western 

 Province of North America. North to Oregon. East to Colorado. South on the table- 

 lands of Mexico. I regard it as very probable that the Strix data of Nattcrer^s Mss., 

 which is said by Bonaparte to differ from pai^^crinnin in the greater length of the tail, is 

 really this variety; for the length of tail is preci.sely one of the main characters ad- 

 duced by Mr. Ridgway in his excellent monograph of the genus. Should this i)rove to 

 be the case, the bird will be known as G. pasHeriinim var. datum. 



The only other North American species of this genus is the following : 



Glaucidium fkkkugineum, (Maxim.) Kaup. 



Strix ferrmfinea, Maxim., Reise, i, 1820, 105; Beit. iii. 234.— Tamm., P. C. 199. (Identi- 



iied by Strickland with the Sparrow Owl ov Lath., Gen. Hist, i, 373, pi. 17.) 

 Nociua ferriiginca, Steph., Gen. Zool. xiii, pt. ii, 69.— Less., Man. i, 111 ; Tr. Orn. 104.— 



Cuv., R. A. 2d ed. i, 346.— Tscii., Wiegm. Arch. 1844, 267; Fn. Peru. 19, 117. 

 Surnia ferruginea, Bp., O-sserv. Cuv. R. A. 56 ; Isis, 1833, 1053. 

 Athene ferruginea, Gkay, Gen. of B ; List B. Brit. Mus. 92.— Bp., Consp. Av. i, 1850, 38.— 



SxmCKL., Orn. Syn. 1855, 162. 

 Glancidintn ferruqinciim, Kaup, Mon. Siriq. Cont. Orn. 1852, 104. — Buini., Th. Bras, ii, 



141, 146.— Cab., Ueb. Berl. Mus. 1869, 206.— Coues, Am. Nat. vi, 1872, 370 



(Arizona. Bcudire ; first introduction to fauna of United States). — Coues, Key, 



1872, 206.— RiDGW., Pr. Bost. Soc. xvi, 1873, 100 (critical).— B. B. & R., N. A. 



B. iii, 1874, 85. 

 if f(?>. -Eastern South America, and whole of Middle America, to the southern border 

 of the Ubited States. 



