I70 Merriam on Megascops ffamnieoltts ida/ioen^t's. [Apri 



months, without securing a single individual ? Perhaps the most 

 difficult kinds to get are the Pigmy, Saw-whet, and Flammu- 

 lated. 



In the summer of 1SS9 the writer and Mr. Vernon Bailey 

 spent two months in the San Francisco Mountain region in Ari- 

 zona. Our base camp was at Little Spring among the pines at 

 the north foot of the mountain, and though small Owls were fre- 

 quently heard at night, we were unable to obtain them. Dr. 

 Mearns, who chanced to pass this same spring during a hurried 

 military trip, had the good fortune to see a Saw-whet at the 

 mouth of a Flicker's hole in a tall pine stump. He killed the 

 bird, which "proved to be the parent of three young and an egg" 

 (Auk, Vir, 1890, p. 54). An equally accidental capture was 

 that of the rare Flammulated Screech Owl shot by me at three 

 o'clock in the morning while climbing out of the Grand Caiion 

 of the Colorado by moonlight, Sept. 13, 1S89. (N. Am. Fauna, 

 No. 3, Sept., 1890, p. 91.) A third instance of the same kind 

 was the chance capture, in the mountains of central Idaho, of the 

 new Dwarf Screech Owl which is the subject of the present 

 ai'ticle. It was killed in a low pine tree on a mountain on the 

 west side of Big Wood River, a few miles north of the town of 

 Ketchum, Idaho, September 32, 1890. 



The type of Megascops Jlammeolus came from Mexico, and 

 for many years the species was known only from central Mexico 

 and Central America ; and it is probable that the type locality of 

 the Idaho form is separated from that o'i Jlammeolus by about two 

 thousand miles. The southern bird is larger and very much 

 darker than the northern. The latter may be distinguished by 

 the following description : — 



'•'•'$)\\x\\\-AX \.o M. Jlammeolus^ but smaller and paler. Wing, 

 135 mm.; tail, 63 mm. (measured from insertion of middle 

 feathers). The back is only slightly paler than in Jlafnmeolus \ 

 the under parts are veiy much paler, the ground color being 

 white and the vermiculations distant ; the black markings ai"^ 

 everywhere restricted. The facial ring is bright tawny ochra- 

 ceous, and spreads out above so as completely to encircle the 

 eyes; the cheeks are ash-gray, and the chin white. The dusky 

 spots in the facial ring are inconspicuous ; in true Jla?7imeolus 

 they are strongly developed, sometimes forming a black ring 

 which is merely tinged with tawny. The black spots on the 



