432 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Pygmy Owl, which I shot, had a freshly killed snowbird {Junto 

 oregonus) in its claws." 



Behavior. — In most of their ways the individuals of this subspecies 

 that live in semiopen country, in the lower foliage and bushes of the 

 Transition Zone closely resemble the California pygmy owls. But in 

 the great forests of Douglas firs, cedars, and sequoias (redwoods) of 

 the coast forests, and also in the Transition Zone, the coast pygmy 

 owls change some of their habits in at least a few ways. James 

 Moffitt, who has a camp 6 miles southwest of Boonville, Mendocino 

 County, Calif., has generously given us many valued notes of his 

 observations. He says: "Redwood is the predominate tree of the 

 numerous creek bottoms and north-facing hillsides. Douglas fir also 

 grows here but attains its greatest development on the summits. 

 Tan-bark oak is a common associate of both. The altitude at my 

 camp is about 900 feet above sea level, and the steep hills rising to 

 each side of the creek are probably 600 to 700 feet higher. Since 

 calling is doubtless a good indication of activity in this species, I 

 judge that the birds are not nocturnal in habit, but are crepuscular 

 at all seasons and partly diurnal throughout the year, increasing activ- 

 ity by day in spring. I have often called these little owls into trees 

 over my head by mimicking their note, to find invariably that they 

 occupied elevated situations in the redwoods a hundred feet or more 

 above the ground. Repeated calling to which the bird usually an- 

 swered and a change of my location resulted in the owl following 

 me, but always remaining high in the trees. They seem loath to 

 forsake the protection of the heavily foliaged upper zones of the red- 

 woods, and in no case was I able to call a pygmy owl down from the 

 upper regions of these trees. I believe that the pygmy owls of Men- 

 docino County are permanently resident to a rather limited area, 

 because year after year, and at any season of the year, their calls are 

 heard from almost the same situations. I am in the habit of taking 

 early-morning rides and walks from my camp, particularly in the 

 deer-hunting season in August and September, and I usually start 

 such trips at dawn. I have thus learned the favorite localities of at 

 least four pairs of pygmy owls, and it is indeed seldom that one or 

 both of these birds' calls are unheard when these places are visited 

 on an early morning ride. The favored resorts of these four pairs of 

 birds are in the vicinity of my camp, but each is at least a quarter 

 of a mile from its closest neighbor. I have never heard pygmy owls 

 calling in the intervening territory, and this would indicate that the 

 birds have a very limited range. The owls that frequented my camp 

 seemed to range in the trees immediately bordering the creek for a 

 distance of about 400 yards along the watercourse, but apparently 

 they seldom, or never, extended their range far from the sides of the 

 creek, as their calls were never heard in the hillside trees bordering the 



