i888.] Bendike on the Habits of Glaucidium. 3^9 



favorite resort for numl)ers of tliese batrachians. vSmall birds, 

 of which there were numbers about in the immediate vicinity in 

 the willow thickets bordering the stream, did not seem to resent 

 the presence of the little Owl, and paid no attention whatever to 

 it. 



Its call notes may often be heard during the early spring 

 months while mating, and usually shortly after sundown. Its love 

 notes are by no means unmusical. They resemble to a certain 

 degree the cooing of the Mourning Dove ( Zenaidzira macrourd) , 

 like 'coohnh^ coohuh' softly uttered, and a number of times re- 

 peated. Although I have not positively seen this bird while in 

 the act of calling its mate, I am cjuite certain that the notes 

 emanated from this little Owl and no other. I am familiar with 

 the notes of the Acadian and Kennicott's Owls {Nyctala acadica 

 and Megascops asio kcnnicottii^^ the only other of the small 

 Owls at all likely to be found there, but their notes are diHerent, 

 and they were not met by me while stationed at Fort Klamath, 

 Oregon. 



Mr. Henshaw found the Pygmy Owls quite numerous in the 

 southern Rocky Mountains, and states that they are rather 

 sociable in disposition, especially during the fall months. He 

 says that he has imitated their call and readily lured them up 

 close enough to be interviewed. (See Auk, Vol. Ill, Jan., 

 1886, p. 79.) I am inclined to think that they are much more 

 common there than further north. 



In regard to the nesting habits of the Pygmy Owl, but very 

 little is yet known, and as far as I am aware, but two nests, one 

 containing eggs, the other young, have been taken. 



Although mention is made in Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's 

 'History of North American Birds,' Vol. Ill, p. 85, that this 

 Owl, according to J. K. Lord^ lays two small eggs, white in 

 color, early in May, I think the credit of the discovery of the 

 nest and eggs of this species really belongs to Mr. George H. 

 Ready, of Santa Cruz, Cala., who on June 8, 1876, found a nest 

 containing three eggs, one of which was accidentally broken, in 

 a deserted Woodpecker's burrow in an old isolated poplar tree, 

 growing on the banks of the San Lorenzo River near Santa 

 Cruz. The burrow was seventy-five feet from the ground. A 

 short account of this find was published by me in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. XIX, March 



