August, 1881.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



47 



California Pigmy Owl. 



( (ilmu'idiuui ijuoma.) 

 C'oiifluileii Irom p. 30. 



twenty of these diminutive Owls within a 

 radius of a quarter of a mile ; their calls to 

 each other were incessant, and from all 

 directions at once. I foimd no difficulty 

 in imitating them, and in a few moments 

 had one of the little fellows sitting in a 

 high pine above my head, answering note 

 for note." 



Dr. Heermann met with it in the moun- 

 tainous districts of the mining regions of 

 California, where it was by no means rare. 

 In 1852, he procured three specimens on 

 the borders of the Calaveras river ; others 

 were taken on the Cosiamnes river, and J. 

 G. Bell met with it on the American river. 



The specimen from which this engrav- 

 ing was taken was shot by Mr. Charles A. 

 Allen, Nicassio, 3Iarm Co., California, and 

 l^nrchased by Mr. Jos. M. Wade. I will 

 quote Mr. Allen's account of the capture 

 and history of tliis bird as given in his let- 

 ter of January 10, 1878 : 



"I have but a single skin of the Pigmy 

 Owl, and that I shot under peculiar circum- 

 stances. Was out deer hunting, Decem 

 ber 31, with a friend from Fr'isco ; the 

 dogs were driving a deer and I was trying 

 to get a position for a shot, when I saw 

 the Owl fly and alight on a large pine tree 

 about one hundred and fifty feet in height. 

 As I wanted Mr. Pigmy more than the 

 deer, I sat down and got a dead rest over 

 my knee and fired away, when the bird 

 dropped twenty or thirty feet down and 

 lodged in the thick branches of the tree 

 where I could not see it, or I should have 

 shot the limb (jff with my rifle. But I had 

 to climb, and such a climb I don't think 

 many collectors ever had. The tree was 

 about seven feet in diameter at the base ; 

 but I got up and down all safe, and 

 send the same bird to you. I can give 

 you but little information respecting these 

 birds as I have seen so few ; but so far 

 as I k:now, they inhabit the heavy dense 

 forests of pine and red-wood, and all 



I find are in the tops of trees from seventy- 

 five to two hundred feet high. In the 

 spring, from the middle of February to the 

 middle of March, on a warm sunny morn- 

 ing, just after sunrise up to about nine 

 o'clock A. M., any one acquainted with these 

 birds will hear a low, soft, musical toot — 

 toot — toot, repeated at intervals ; and it is 

 done, as near as I can discover, during the 

 mating season by the male, and continues 

 up to the time the female commences to in- 

 cubate ; after this time they again become 

 silent and cannot be found unless acciden- 

 tally. Of their nest and eggs I know noth- 

 ing, having never found one, although I 

 have repeatedly searched for them for the 

 past three years. Some writers claim that 

 they feed on insects, etc., but my experi- 

 ence shows they desire more substantial 

 food, such as small birds, mice and squir- 

 rels. In June, 1875, 1 was in a deep canon, 

 searching for green black-cap flycatchers 

 {Myiodioctes pusillus, var. pileolatus.) I 

 had just seen one of these birds dart into a 

 bush and was watching for a chance to 

 shoot, when something darted down in 

 front of me like a flash and fastened to a 

 striped squirrel that had been sitting on a 

 log about twenty feet from where I stood, 

 and flew with it to a large dead pine tree ; 

 and then I saw it was a Pigmy Owl, and on 

 the branch were three fully fledged jonng 

 ones, and they all came to the old bird and 

 were fed by her. After the squirrel was 

 devoured, I shot one of the young and the 

 rest took flight into the thick foliage of 

 some neighboring red-\^ oods and I lost 

 them. On a calm still morning the notes 

 of these little Owls can be heard about a 

 mile in the light atmosphere of the hills 

 and mountains out here." 



From the testimony of these various col- 

 lectors, it is quite evident that the Pigmy 

 Owl is not nocturnal in its habits, but seeks 

 its food mostly at twilight and early mom, 

 and like the Sparrow-hawk, it is insectivor- 

 ous where grasshoppers, crickets and bee- 

 tles abound ; and where these are wanting 

 it is equally expert in capturing small birds, 



