THE CALIFORNIA PYGMY OWL. 407 



143. Glaucidium gnoma californicum (Sclater). 



CALIFORNIA PYGMY OWL. 



Glaucidium californicum Sclater, Proceedings Zoological Society London, 1857, p. 4. 

 Olaucidium, gnoma californicum Bendire, Auk, Vol. v, October, 1888, p. 366. 

 (B 60, part; C 329, part; R 409, part; C 484, part; U 379a.) 



Geographical range: Coast region of California, Oregon, Washington, and 

 southern British Columbia. 



The California Pygmy Owl, a darker colored race than the preceding, is a 

 resident of and breeds in the timbered regions adjacent to the Pacific coast 

 from about latitude 37° N. in middle California, through western Oregon, Wash- 

 ington, and southern British Columbia, where Mr. Clark P. Streator reports it as 

 common in the vicinity of Mount Lehman, in latitude 49° N., and breeding. In 

 the drier climate in the interior of these States it is replaced by the true 

 Glaucidium gnoma, and its habits generally are very similar to that subspecies. 

 I believe the credit of discovery of the nest and eggs of this Owl belongs 

 to Mr. George H. Ready, of Santa Cruz, California, who found a nest on 

 June 8, 1868, containing three eggs, in a deserted Woodpecker's excavation 

 in an old and isolated poplar tree growing on the banks of the San Lorenzo 

 River, near the above mentioned locality. The cavity was 75 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 21, 1879, p. 

 132), and a somewhat fuller description, by W. C. Cooper, can be found in 

 the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club (Vol. iv, April, 1879, p. 86). 



The two eggs which Mr. Cooper has made drawings of, and which I have 

 before me, are nearly ovate in shape, and said to be dull white in color, with 

 a scarcely perceptible yellowish tinge. Their surface is described as quite 

 smooth, and to have the appearance of having been partly punctured with 

 a fine needle point over the whole ^g^. Judging from the drawings they 

 are decidedly pointed for Owls' eggs, and perhaps somewhat abnomal in this 

 respect, resembling the eggs of the Burrowing Owl in shape. Their size is 

 given as 1.18 by 0.90 and 1.17 by 0.87 inches (about 30 by 22.9 and 29.7 

 by 22.1 millimetres). 



I recently had an opportunity to examine two sets of eggs, now in the 

 oological collections of Messi's. Samuel B. Ladd and Joseph Hoopes, of West 

 Chester, Pennsylvania, which are said to belong to this subspecies. Both 

 were collected in Benton County, Oregon, and found in Woodpeckers' excava- 

 tions in dead trees in swampy woods. One of these sets, taken May 20, 1889, 

 containing four eggs, and now in Mr. Ladd's collection, measures, respectively, 

 27 by 23, 26.5 by 23, 26 by 23, and 26 by 22.5 millimetres. The shells of 

 these eggs are smooth, close grained, and very thin, almost semitranslucent. In 

 color they are dull milky white, with a very faint creamy tint, and show no 

 luster, but have the peculiar pittings or punctures already referred to, and 

 which seem to be characteristic of the eggs of this Owl. They are rounded 



