CALIFORNIA PYGMY OWL 423 



not enter the nest until it had satisfied itself that there were no enemies 

 in the neighborhood. 



As is the case with the Rocky Mountain pygmy, this subspecies 

 has the flight of a shrike, with the same peculiar wing beat. Its speed 

 is fair. The flight sound is not muffled by softened wing linings but 

 resembles that of an ordinary bird in this respect. Like the shrike, 

 it is apt to fly by a series of short flights with resting pauses at favorite 

 lookouts. After alighting it may work itself up through the tree, 

 limb by limb, to a higher branch, or even to the top. Although the 

 flight in other respects is not owllike, a pygmy has the usual big- 

 headed appearance of other owls. On August 26, 1933, I saw one in 

 the Sequoia National Park early in the morning. It was flying about 

 20 feet above ground, and this particular bird reminded me somewhat 

 of a large flying bat. I have also heard it said that this flight re- 

 sembles that of a falcon. With all these comparisons, it is small 

 wonder that the pygmy is deceiving and that it is less often recorded 

 than its common occurrence justifies. 



Ou November 16, 1925, Joseph Grinnell, Tracy I. Storer, Joseph 

 Mailliard, Eugene Law, and Mrs. Law were gathered at Mr. Law's 

 home in Altadena, Calif. There they saw such an unusual sight that 

 I think it deserves quoting. Joseph Mailliard (1926) says: 



A few feet below us and some ten feet away was the bath — a shallow Indian 

 mortar — beneath a bush. The pigmy owl (Glaucidium gnoma, subspecies cali- 

 fornicum in all probability) was thoroughly enjoying itself, unconscious of the 

 group of fascinated watchers. The owl was wading about in the water, which 

 was not over an inch and a half deep, sometimes ducking its head and then shak- 

 ing off the water that rolled down its back, then again dipping forward so as to 

 bathe its abdomen and breast. At times it would slowly turn around, seemingly 

 not quite decided just what to do next, or it would stand still for a few seconds 

 and then switch its tail sideways in the water with a remarkably quick action. 

 Once it stood still with its back toward us for some little time, now turning its 

 head on one side until looking directly backwards, then snapping its head around 

 anteriorly to the other side until the posterior limit of action was reached, all with 

 such rapidity that our eyes could scarcely follow the movement. During this 

 time, some five or six minutes, the owl kept its feathers so fluffed out as to make it 

 appear to be much larger than it actually was. 



Meanwhile, in timid wonder, there was gathered around the bather another 

 group of spectators — Valley Quail, Anna Hummingbirds, Gambel Sparrows, 

 Golden-crowned Sparrows, Spurred Towhees, Anthony Brown Towhees, Audubon 

 Warblers, Pallid Wrentits and possibly other birds, all in characteristic attitudes 

 watching the proceedings with suppressed excitement, with the hummingbirds 

 poised on wing in front of the bath. 



Finally, apparently deciding that it had done its duty in the ablutionary line, 

 the little owl flew up to a bare branch three or four feet above the water and 

 perched there, wagging its tail from side to side, possibly to shake off any remain- 

 ing water. In about half a minute it flew into the upper part of a large oak tree 

 near by, where it remained for some minutes before finally flying over and pitching 

 down the edge of the bluff behind the house, followed by some twenty of the avian 

 observers of its recent bathing activities. 



