FAMILY STRIGIDAE 1 69 



birds that flitted about in the high branches was explained, as they 

 had come as usual to scold this predator. I learned later that country- 

 men believe they are the attendants that always accompany the magi- 

 cal macua, though no especial function was attributed to them. I heard 

 one of these little owls whistling the following day. Another encounter 

 with this species was at the Peluca Hydrographic Station on the Rio 

 Boqueron, where we caught 1 on the forenoon of February 22, 1961, 

 in a mist net set in the forest undergrowth. At our camp at 575 meters 

 on the Rio Tacarcuna, Darien, on March 13, 1964, one called from 

 the forest at sunset. Our Panamanian assistants identified the note 

 as that of the "macua" but confused the author with the Cayenne 

 swift ! 



GLAUCIDIUM JARDINII COSTARICANUM Kelso: 

 Mountain Pygmy Owl; Buhito Serrano 



Glaucidium jardinii costaricanum Kelso, Auk, vol. 54, no. 3, July 2, 1937, p. 304. 

 (Costa Rica.) 



A small owl, without feather horns; with white-spotted crown, 

 barred sides, and 4 exposed broken bars on the tail. 



Description. — Length 145-160 mm. Brown phase: adult (sexes 

 alike), above warm brown to sooty brown, blacker on the ends of the 

 primaries and the tail; forehead with partly concealed white bases; 

 crown dotted with irregular spots of white bordered very narrowly 

 with black, some of the markings expanded laterally into indefinite 

 bars ; a narrow, mainly concealed line of cinnamon-brown across base 

 of hindneck, with a black eyelike spot at either side ; back more or less 

 spotted and wings barred with white and buff ; tail with narrow white 

 tip, and 4 broken bars of white, with a fifth bar concealed beneath the 

 upper tail coverts ; a narrow white superciliary ; feathers around eye 

 dull brown, barred narrowly with buff, basally white; throat, fore- 

 neck, and center of breast and abdomen white ; a cross band across 

 f oreneck warm brown ; sides broadly bright brown, barred narrowly 

 and indistinctly with buff and black ; under tail coverts white, streaked 

 lightly with blackish brown; legs dark buff, banded with blackish 

 brown, mainly white on posterior surface ; under wing coverts white, 

 lined with black; underside of wing barred with white. 



Rufous phase rufous-brown above and below, with the lighter 

 markings rufous-buff, but much obscured. (The type specimen of 

 the subspecies is in this phase) . 



A male from Cerro Punta, Chiriqui, had the iris bright yellow ; 

 bare upper eyelid bright greenish yellow; cere dull yellow; tip of 



