February, 1882.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



95 



it remained unique in collections I b*.'lieve 

 for more than ten years afterwards. 



While I was stationed in the southern 

 portion of Arizona Territory, during the 

 year 1872, I had the pleasure of securing 

 several specimens of this then little known 

 species. I found the first one in a dense 

 willow thicket near Rillitto creek, and close 

 to the present site of Camp Lowell, about 

 seven miles from Tucson, the principal 

 town of the Territory, about the beginning 

 of April, 1872. Under date of April 20th, 

 same year, I find the following entry in one 

 •of my note books : " Shot a very small Owl 

 this morning, about the size of a Blackbird, 

 which I take to be Dr. Cooper's Micrathene 

 whitneyi. I found it in a dense willow 

 thicket near Rillitto creek, and although I 

 made a good deal of noise, it allowed me 

 to approach quite close. Length, scarcely 

 six inches." 



Under date of April 22d, 1872, I find a 

 detailed description and measurement of 

 another specimen. I omit part of the de 

 scription as this is well known now, but 

 give the measurements and other notes as 

 taken down at the time. 



'■ Length of specimen (sex not given) to 

 ■end of tail, 5.75 inches, to end of claws, 

 6.50 inches. Extent of wings, 14.50 inch- 

 es; tail, 2.25; iris, sulphur yellow; length 

 of tarsus, .80 inches; color, light gray, 

 turning into dirty yellow about the toes; 

 bill, greenish yellow; tarsi and toes thin- 

 ly covered with bristly feathers. These 

 little Owls seem to be arboreal in their 

 habits as well as nocturnal, always fre- 

 quenting dark and shady places in the thick- 

 est bushes and shrubs. While down in the 

 Rillitto creek bottom this evening, a little 

 after sundown, I followed the sound of a 

 peculiar noise, apparently coming from the 

 edge of a dense mesquit thicket, and which 

 I had previously heard in several similar 

 localities, without, however, being able to 

 discover its author. By carefully examin- 

 ing every tree in the vicinity, I at last saw 

 another of these little Owls on a horizontal 

 limb of a good sized Mesquit tree, about 



sixteen feet from the ground. After watch- 

 ing it some minutes, during which time it 

 uttered its peculiar call-notes repeatedly, 

 without appearing to be at all disturbed by 

 my intrusion. I shot it. Its notes resem- 

 ble as near as I can come to expressing 

 them on paper the syllables of cha-chu, 

 cha chu, frequently repeated in different 

 keys; sometimes quite loud, then again so 

 low and plaintive that the bird could scarce- 

 ly be heard more than twenty steps off. 

 The one I shot yesterday was sitting quite 

 erect and perfectly motionless and might 

 easily have been taken for a part of the 

 limb on which it was sitting. This one was 

 in a more natural position and looked 

 shoiter and thicker. They are not very 

 rare here." 



Specimens sent to leading ornithologists 

 subsequently proved the birds to be of this 

 species. Unfortunately I am unable to 

 give much information about its nesting 

 habits, although I found what I supposed 

 to be one of their nests, in May, 1872, with 

 fully fledged young ones, in a hole of an old 

 mesquit stump in the Rillitto creek bot- 

 tom. I was enlarging another hole in the 

 same stump, but lower down, to examine it, 

 when I noticed a couple of young birds of 

 this species fly out from above me, and on 

 investigation I found a cavity about twelve 

 inches deep containing some old leaves, 

 pieces of bark and a few feathers, but noth- 

 ing else. There may have been more 

 young birds, I only saw the two, however. 

 The eggs of this Owl as far as I am 

 aware still remain unknown. The late Col. 

 Grayson found this species on some of 

 the islands near the west coast of Mexico. 

 I think it will only be found as a summer 

 resident in Arizona, but now that this Ter- 

 ritory is so easy of access by rail, it should 

 not be long before we are fully informed of 

 its breeding habits as well as those of num- 

 berless other equally rare and interesting 

 species which pass their breeding season 

 within our southern borders. 



Two other species almost equally inter- 

 esting were found by me in the same vicin- 



