^*'i9°3^] Brown, Arizona Bird Notes. 43 



ARIZONA BIRD NOTES. 



BY HERBERT BROWN. 



My experience with the Elf Owl {Micropallus whiUieyi) is that 

 during the spring and summer months they home almost wholly 

 in holes made by woodpeckers in the sahuara, or giant cactus. 

 Although so common to the hills and plains of Arizona this cactus 

 does not grow in the immediate vicinity of Yuma. It is, however, 

 plentiful about twenty miles above on the Colorado, in the great 

 washes that slash the mesas at right angles with the river, and 

 along the river bottom bordering the foothills. By comparison 

 with those growing in central and southeastern Arizona these 

 cactus are small, seldom averaging more than thirty feet in height. 

 Nearly all contain woodpecker holes, many of which appear at 

 some time to have been used. They must have been made over 

 a long series of years, or at a time when bird life was more 

 plentiful than now, as not one in fifty have occupants of any kind. 

 During my last two visits to that section I worked the cactus over a 

 large scope of country and was surprised at the poverty of bird life. 



May 18, 1902, by the aid of a 21-foot ladder, I climbed my first 

 cactus on the Colorado. It was a prolific tree. In one hole I 

 found an Elf Owl sitting on three partially incubated eggs. In 

 another hole I found her mate, and in still another five young 

 woodpeckers {^CeJiturus uropygialis). As this cactus had been so 

 fruitful I very naturally expected to find many others equally so, 

 but did not. I returned everything to their nests. For seven 

 hours four men worked the big ladder on every promising cactus 

 within a radius of several miles, but we found only three additional 

 owls, one of which played ' possum ' and escaped ; the other two I 

 brought home with me. Both were females, as with one I took 

 three partially incubated eggs, and a fresh ^^g was found in the 

 box on my return home. 



This trip was made wholly for the purpose of satisfying myself as 

 to the presence of the Elf Owl on the Colorado. We were twenty- 

 one hours in making it, as the sun was intensely hot and the road 

 both heavy and rough. Although the object sought had been 

 accomplished I was not very well satisfied with results. A week 



