428 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



owl tree to see if the pygmies were at home. We were lucky. One 

 of the owls was in plain sight among the leafless twigs. He was all 

 hunched up, and with his feathers puffed he looked almost as broad as 

 he was long. The morning of February second was grayed by a high 

 cloud cap that covered the sky. On the ground lay the light fall of 

 snow of two days previous. The scramble of blackberry vines oppo- 

 site the village school had rid itself of most of the snow and here was 

 staged for us a little drama. We were attracted thither, while on 

 our morning walk, by an excited chorus of Sierra juncos. About 

 50 juncos perched around on the thorny cover, and as a bird uttered 

 a crisp note, which was repeated by his fellows and swelled into staccato 

 chorus, he flecked his tail casting a gleam of white. Suddenly our 

 eyes picked out among the vines upon the ground the desperado that 

 the birds reviled: a pygmy owl squatted over a dark object held in 

 his talons. At this moment the dark object moved and the owl struck 

 it a fierce blow with his bill, and at the owl's movement the chorus of 

 clicks doubled in volume. This seemed to annoy the owl, and 

 grasping his victim firmly in his talons he flitted up onto a thorny 

 blackberry branch 3 feet above the ground. Turning his head this 

 way and that the owl seemed annoyed and confused. He faced us 

 and his deep set eyes glowed black and wrathful." Although the 

 juncos gathered about and abused him, the little owl fed first on the 

 brains and later on the flesh. The juncos stayed for 10 or 15 minutes 

 and then gradually left, leaving the pygmy to finish his meal. 



GLAUCIDIUM GNOMA SWARTHI Grinnell 

 VANCOUVER PYGMY OWL 



HABITS 



Contributed by Milton Philo Skinner 



This race of pygmy owls inhabits Vancouver Island and the adjoin- 

 ing parts of the mainland of British Columbia. Elsewhere the 

 pygmy owls of British Columbia are the coast pygmy owls in the humid 

 coast forests, and the California pygmy owls farther inland where the 

 climate is drier and more severe. The Vancouver form is described 

 by Dr. J. Grinnell (1913) as darker colored throughout than the 

 California form, inclining to bister on the back and with white mark- 

 ings reduced. It is smaller than the Rocky Mountain form and very 

 much darker and browner. In habits the Vancouver bird resembles 

 the coast race. 



Courtship. — John K. Lord had the good fortune to see a pair of 

 these pygmies courting and his description (1866) differs somewhat 

 from the observations already given for the California pygmy owl. He 

 says: "In the evening twilight the owls again come out of their hole 

 and take erratic flights around their abode, chasing each other up 



