424 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Voice.— Mr. and Mrs. Michael have been very generous with 

 material on the pygmy's notes and calls. Early in the morning of a 

 May 4 they "caught the single hollow whistled note of an owl. The 

 sound seemed to come from directly overhead." On the morning of 

 June 2, 1927, they found a pygmy hopping up to the topmost branches 

 of a tall Kellogg oak, where it gave a trilling note. Another time they 

 speak of a single note given while eating as recorded herein under 

 notes on feeding. Of another occasion, they say: "The song of the 

 Pygmy Owl is a series of mellow notes, rolled along at an even pitch. 

 The first stream of notes comes rapidly in a sort of a low rolling trill. 

 Then comes a pause and three notes each separated by a distinct 

 pause. In print the song might be represented as follows: o-o-o-o-o- 



o-o-o-o-o oo oo oo. The characteristic feature, the 



touch that gives charm and beauty to the theme, is those long hesitat- 

 ing pauses between the last three notes. There is also a ventriloquistic 

 quality to the voice of the pygmy, and the least turn of his head ap- 

 parently changes his location. Therefore a singing bird is very hard 

 to locate, for his song comes from one direction and then from another 

 direction." The song just described seems to be the standard vocal 

 effort of summer, and perhaps it may be used at other seasons also. 



Grinnell and Storer (1924) describe this same song when they write: 



In the Yosemite Valley, the voice of the California Pigmy Owl was heard more 

 frequently than that of any other nocturnally active bird. * * * A regular 

 concert beginning at early dark and lasting until dark, [was] given on the evening 

 of October 10, 1914. * * * Two birds about 300 yards apart were answering 

 one another, and at one time a third was heard in the distance. The calls con- 

 sisted of a slow trill, rather mellow, but not so mellow nor of such full quality as in 

 the call of the California Screech Owl — more like the slow roll of the flicker. This 

 trill would continue some seconds, then came a pause, then one note, an equal 

 pause, and a second note. In one instance a third note was added. The striking 

 characteristic was the pause after the trill, followed by the two detached notes. 

 Once three far-separated notes were heard, not preceded by any trill. The fol- 

 lowing syllables, if uttered while one whistles, seem to represent the pigmy owls' 

 usual song: too-too-too-too-too-too-too-too; toot; toot; toot. 



Mr. Dawson gives still another description in his Birds of Cali- 

 fornia: 



The Pygmy Owl "sings" in a small hollow voice, klook-klook-klook look look look 

 look look look, with an effect for tempo something like that produced by the 

 accelerating rebound of a tiny wooden mallet, struck on resonant wood, in quality 

 something between this and the pectoral quaver of the Screech Owl. * * * 



Even more characteristic of the bird's presence in the forest is a weird, tolling 

 note, ventriloquial, elusive, and most marvelously penetrating. At some dis- 

 tance it meets the ear as a mellow rounded tddk or tdddok, for it must not be con- 

 ceived too short, nor yet as other than a monosyllable. At close quarters, how- 

 ever, one detects a premonitory sibillation, and at the end a gurgling, muffled 

 ring. The whole becomes then (si)poolk(ngh), and it may be best imitated by a 

 whistle which is conscientiously modified by attendant grimaces. Nor is it easy 

 to exaggerate the penetrating character of this sound. When I first ran it down, 



