410 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Prince Max z. Wied, in Burmeister's 'Thiere Brasilien's' (Vol. n, 1856, p. 142), 

 its call is said to be 'keck, keck, keck.' The best account of the life history 

 of this little Owl is found in the Journal fiir Ornithologie (Vol. XVH, 1869, pp. 

 244, 245), under 'Notes on the Natural History of the Birds of Brazil,' by Carl 

 Euler. 



"According to this authority, small as the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl is, it 

 has been known to carry off young chickens, and he was informed by the 

 natives that it even attacked Jacu hens (Penelope), a bird of greater size than 

 domestic fowls. It was stated to him that the little Owl fastened itself under 

 the wings of the latter, gradually tearing it to pieces, and wearing it out and 

 eventually killing it. I am aware, from personal observations, that some of our 

 small Owls are the peer, as far as courage is concerned, of the noblest Falcon 

 ever hatched, but I should not quite care to father that story. Carl Euler says, 

 further, that in captivity, when fed on birds, it always carefully removed all the 

 larger feathers from the carcass before beginning its meal. Also that it was not 

 at all afraid of light, and that he met with it several times during bright sun- 

 shiny days, sitting on perfectly bare and leafless trees. He gives its call note 

 as 'khiu, khiu.' Apparently none of us here mentioned agree on the call note 

 of this Owl, and I leave it to the reader to take his choice. 



"Euler surmises that it rears two broods a season, one in October the 

 other in December. He once met in March a family of four, two adults and 

 two young, sitting close together on a limb of a tree, waiting, as he says, 

 for twilight. The nest is said to be made in hollow trees, but no mention is 

 made of the eggs having been found, however, and I cannot find any 

 description of them in any of the works accessible to me. 



"A nest containing two fully fledged young found by me in a hole in an 

 old mesquite tree in the spring of 1872, in a chaparral thicket near Camp 

 Lowell, and referred to at the time as being that of Micropallas whitneyi, may 

 possibly, and probably, have been one of this little Owl, as the Elf Owl 

 seems to confine itself in its nesting sites mainly to excavations in giant cactus 

 (Cereus giganteus), so far as known." 



Since this account was published, Mr. George B. Sennett has secured 

 the eggs of this species. He says: "On May 2, 1888, my collector took an 

 adult female and an egg of this Owl at Canon del Caballeros, near Victoria, 

 Tamaulipas, Mexico. The locality is high and at the base of the more pre- 

 cipitous mountains. The nest was in a hollow tree and contained but a 

 single fresh egg, which is white, shaped like that of a Megascops, measures 

 1.05 by 0.90 inches [about 26.7 by 22.9 millimetres], and is now in my col- 

 lection with the parent bird. It will be observed that in size it is very close 

 to the egg of Micropallas whitneyi." 1 



Since Mr. Sennett published the above he has received a set of four 

 eggs of this species taken within our southern border, which, as well as the 

 first mentioned egg, he has kindly allowed me to examine. The latter were 



'Auk, Vol. vi, No. 1, January, 1889, p. 70. 



