NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



visitors. Plate IV is a sectional view of the home of the Burrowing Owl. 

 In some localities it is lined with fine weed-stalks, feathers, bits of skin, 

 etc., as Mr. Fred Corey informed me is the case in the vicinity of Santa 

 Paula, Cal. Capt. Bendire says he never found any other material in the 

 cavity occupied by the nest than broken pieces of horse or cow dung, in 

 Washington Territory. Around the outside may be found bits of skins 

 of gophers, rats, mice, and ears of small rabbits. Mr. Corey says the old 

 birds have the curious habit, when they alight on the ground, of bowing 

 several times in the gravest manner possible, and as nearly like a person 

 as could be expected of a bird. 



409. California Pigmy Owl — gl.xucidium gnom.\. This rather diurnal 

 little Owl is common in the wooded regions of United States from the 

 Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and southward. It nests in the hollows 

 of trees, like others of the family. The eggs are white, spherical in shape 

 and have a rough surface, like those of Whitney's Pigmy Owl. 



411. Whitney's Pigmy Owl — micrathene whitneyi. This very curi- 

 ous little Owl, of which few specimens have been taken, is found in Ari- 

 zona and southward. It nests usually in the deserted excavations of wood- 

 peckers in giant cactus trunks, at a considerable height from the ground. 

 Mr. Brewster, writing on a Collection of Arizona Birds in Bull. Nutt. Club, viii, 

 1883, describes an egg as broadly ovate in shape and measuring 1.07 by 

 .91. "The shell, which is clear white, is slightly roughened by numer- 

 ous pores, but it nevertheless has a decided polish. Fresh eggs were 

 found from May 10 to June 27, dates which indicate that the species 

 breeds rather late in the season." 



412. White Gyrfalcon — hierofalco gyrfalco candicans. Varying 

 from a creamy -white to yellowish brown, profusely sprinkled with reddish- 

 brown of varying shades, usually so dense as to almost conceal the ground 

 color; two to four in number. All the eggs of the several forms of Gyr- 

 falcon present common characteristics, and do not differ from each other 

 more than eggs known to belong to the same species of hawk are found 

 to vary. This form of Gyrfalcon belongs to Greenland in the breeding 

 season, straying south in winter, but is said not to occur in the United 

 States. The nest is placed in trees or cliffs, rudely constructed, composed 

 of sticks, moss, and sea-weed. Mr. J. Parker Norris, of Philadelphia, 

 whose private collection is a very extensive one, and especially rich in fine 

 sets of eggs of the Raptorcs, has favored me with a large number of de- 

 tailed notes on the nests and eggs of various Gyrfalcons and others. A 



