88 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



last being scarcely distinguishable ; on the longest quill eight can be detected. Wing- 

 formula, 4, 3 = 5 - 2, 6, 7, 8, 9 - 1. Length, " 6.25 " ; extent 

 tail, 2.30 ; culmen, .35 ; tarsus, .80 ; middle toe, .60. 



15.25"; wing, 4.40; 



A male from Socorro Island (49,678, Colonel A. J. Grayson) is less adult 

 than the preceding. The upper plumage is more brownish and more mot- 

 tled ; the rufous spots, though deeper and larger, are less sharply defined ; 

 the spots on the primaries are all ocliraceous; the bands on the tail are 

 broader, thouuh of the same number. Beneath the longitudinal blotches 

 do not appear, but the rusty rufous covers nearly the whole surface, leav- 

 ing the medial portion only white, and this not well defined ; the rusty 

 shows ra2;2;ed minute transverse bars of blackish. The whitish collar round 

 the nape is also better defined than in the type. Wing, 4.20 ; tail, 2.10. 

 Wing-formula, 4, 3 = 5 - 6, 2 - 7, 8, 9, 10, 1. Length, 5.20 ; extent, 14.25. 



Another specimen, 50,765, from the same locality, also apparently imma- 

 ture, is just like the preceding in plumage. It measures, wing, 4.00 ; tail, 1.90. 

 Habits. The type specimen of this diminutive species was sliot at 

 Fort Mohave, in the Colorado Valley, latitude 35°, April 26, 1861, and two 



others have since been taken on the 

 Socorro Islands, off the western coast of 

 Mexico, by Colonel Grayson. It is smaller 

 even than the little California Pygmy 

 Owl, and is therefore the smallest known 

 to inhabit North America. It resembles 

 that species in its colors, but is thought 

 by Dr. Cooper to be more similar to the 

 burrowing Owls in its generic characters. 

 It was found in a dense thicket, on a 

 very windy morning, and where it may 

 have taken only a temporary refuge, af- 

 ter having been blown down from some 

 of the caverns in the barren mountains 

 surrounding the valley. In its stomach 

 were found tlie remains of insects and 

 the feathers of small birds. Several specimens of this Owl were taken in 

 Arizona by Captain Bendire, one of which is now in the collection of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History. Captain Bendire also found one of their 

 nests, with two fully fledged young ones, in a hole of a mesquite stump. 



Micrathene whitneyi. 



Genus SPEOTYTO, Gloger. 



Speotyto, '' Gloger, 1842." (Type, Sl.ri.i; cunicularia, MoL.) 

 " Pholeoptynx, Kaup, 1848." (Same type.) 



Gen. Char. Size small ; head small, and without ear-tufts. Bill moderately strong, 

 pale yellowish. Tarsi more than twice as long as the middle toe, feathered in front, 



