THE PYGMY OWL. 



489 



tlie first week in April 

 for the northern, one 

 may hear at evening 

 a soft and mellow 

 love song, coo co-o, 

 which the male re- 

 peats by the hour. 

 One who has heard 

 this tender note well- 

 ing" up from tlu- 

 back pasture. whiK- 

 the locust trees b\ 

 the gate are dis- 

 tilling tlieir sweetest 

 fragrance, and Ad- 

 ams is fading on 

 the western horizon 

 in the last afterglow 

 of sunset, can easily- 

 forgive many things 

 about the Burrowing 

 Owl which are less 

 pleasant. 



Taken IK Oregon. 



Photo by Finlcy and Boliluum. 



BROTHERS. 



No. iq8. 



PYGMY OWL. 



A. O. U. No. 379. Glaucidium gnoma W'agler. 



Synonym. — GxOME Owl. 



Description. — Adults: Upperparts warm brown ( snutt brown or darker), 

 finely spotted with white or pale ochraceous-buff — the spots are smallest and cir- 

 cular on head and upper back, larger, cordate or hastate on tertials and wing- 

 coverts, and everywhere bordered obscurely with dusky: flight-feathers spotted 

 with white; tail crossed by six interrupted bars fone terminal) of white: a cer- 

 vical collar of mingled black and white ; sides and a band across jugulum color 

 of back or a little lighter, and similarly spotted : throat white : underparts white 

 streaked coarsely with sepia, the streaks tending to coalesce in stripes. Bill and 

 cere greenish yellow : feet dull yellow with soles of bright chrome, claws black ; 

 iris bright yellow. The female is of a rather lighter shade of brown above with 



