COAST PYGMY OWL 433 



stream at a distance farther than 100 yards from it. Another pair 

 ranges on the summit of one of the higher peaks of the vicinity, rising 

 directly from my camp, and not more than half a mile distant. Here 

 they appear to be restricted to the heavy Douglas-fir growth of a 

 limited area on the summit. Still another pair is established halfway 

 up a north-facing hillside south of camp, where they appear to be 

 localized within narrow limits. I have never heard pygmy owls in 

 the live, blue, and Kellogg oak woods of the south-lying hillsides that 

 present Upper Sonoran associations. Apparently this owl is strictly 

 a Transition Zone species in Mendocino County." It should be noted 

 that these Mendocino birds prefer the upper foliage and that they 

 seem to be wild and wary. 



The flight is like that of the Rocky Mountain and California pygmy 

 owls already described, but it has been observed that in flying at least 

 one coast pygmy owl kept its tail widely spread. 



Joseph Mailliard (1922) says of the bathing of the coast pygmy 

 owl: "On September 28, 1921, while camping at the easterly end of 

 Kneeland Prairie, Humboldt County, California, in company with 

 Mr. Chester C. Lamb, the latter came in from a tramp in the woods 

 with the report that he had seen a Coast Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium 

 gnoma grinnelli) taking a bath. He described the bird as standing on 

 the edge of a small cattle trough beside the trail and going through the 

 process of ablution in about the same manner as any other bird. 

 The trough was full to the brim and the little owl was dipping and 

 dabbling in the water, finally shaking itself and preening its feathers." 



Voice. — The notes of this subspecies are much like those of the 

 California pygmy owl, having the same whistling, trilling, ventriloquial 

 tones. James Moffitt says: "The pygmy owls call more frequently in 

 spring than at other seasons of the year, when it is not uncommon to 

 hear their whistling note throughout the morning and early in the 

 evening. At other seasons the calls are mainly uttered from about 

 dawn for two or three hours, after which the birds are quiet until late 

 in the afternoon, when calling again commences about two hours 

 before dark. The birds seem rarely to call at night. So far as ob- 

 served by me, calls are always uttered by the bird when it is at rest 

 and never when on the wing. I am unable to distinguish any differ- 

 ence in the quality of the call notes of pygmy owls, and since pre- 

 sumably both sexes call, their voices are alike." 



Enemies. — Mr. Moffitt tells me that he has never known these owls 

 in Mendocino County to have their whereabouts disclosed by other 

 birds mobbing them, as I have recounted for the other subspecies. 

 But he adds that this may be because these owls range so high in the 

 redwoods that such disturbances would not be noted from the ground. 

 He also adds: "The pair of pygmy owls that frequented the creek by 

 my camp for six years is apparently not in evidence this spring, 1933. 



