426 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



birds. For instance, Mr. and Mrs. Michael tell of a nest in the Yo- 

 semite Valley found during the spring of 1927: "When the owls began 

 to bring food to their young a number of robins that lived in the 

 vicinity kept me informed as to their goings and comings. Loudly 

 the robins, and very often they were joined by other birds, protested 

 the arrival of the owls." Another time, on the morning of April 20, 

 1929, Mr. Michael's attention "was attracted by the evident excite- 

 ment among a mixed gathering of small birds. Sierra j uncos were 

 uttering their scolding 'click notes' and California purple finches were 

 protesting vociferously, while three or four California woodpeckers 

 looked on with but a mild show of interest. Sure enough, as was 

 suspected, the birds were berating a pygmy owl that was perched in 

 the bare branches of a Kellogg oak. While I looked on, the owl 

 took wing, and with a dozen or more small birds in close pursuit it 

 flew a hundred yards and again came to perch in a Kellogg oak." 

 Summing up his experiences, Mr. Michael says that "all small birds 

 hate the pygmy owl. When a pygmy is discovered all the small birds 

 of the neighborhood band together and do their combined best to 

 make his life miserable. They curse and revile him, but do not dare 

 to strike; a bird with two faces, four eyes, and a fighting heart is a 

 little too tough to tackle." 



Leo K. Wilson (1925) says: "While it was eating a small snake, a 

 Pygmy Owl was discovered by a Modoc Hairy Woodpecker. Im- 

 mediately this bird approached the little owl, which ruffled up his 

 feathers much like his cousin, the great horned owl, is wont to do. 

 Apparently this had the desired effect, for the woodpecker promptly 

 flew to another part of the tree." Taylor and Shaw (1927) record 

 interesting news when they say: "J. B. Flett writes of a tragedy that 

 occurred at Longmire during November, when a pigmy owl alighted 

 in a fir tree near his cottage. 'I heard a battle raging outside and 

 went out to find one owl dead and a flock of 8 or 10 camp robbers 

 (Perisoreus obscurus griseus), led by a Steller jay (Cyanocitta stelleri 

 stelleri), chasing another one into the woods.' " Grinnell and Storer 

 record (1924) that on December 10, 1914— 



a creeper was heard squeaking emphatically, with its attention fixed on the 

 lower branches of a yellow pine. Presently a pigmy owl disclosed its presence by 

 taking flight. * * * Near El Portal, on December 6, 1914, a pigmy owl was 

 obtained through the assistance of solicitous song birds. A bevy of fully fifteen 

 ruby-crowned kinglets was buzzing like bees about the foliage of a tree, each 

 uttering its ratchet-like call, and flitting hither and thither in the most perturbed 

 manner. While the observer was watching, a pair of plain titmouses joined the 

 group, and soon there flew out a pigmy owl, quickly followed by a good part of 

 the excited congregation. 



This last experience at El Portal closely parallels several of my own, 

 where I have found a pygmy secluded in dense evergreens, my atten- 

 tion first being attracted through the cries and excitement of flocks of 



