318 PYGMY OWL — G. PASSERINUM VAE. CALIFORNICUM. 



Tlie specimens 1 took at Port Whipple euabled me to credit the Ter- 

 ritory with this line little species, before only known in the United 

 States as a bird of California, Oregon, and Washington. It inhabits 

 the whole Pacific Slope, as now appears, and extends southward into 

 Mexico. Audubon referred it to Striw passer inoides, Temniinck, and Mr. 

 Cassin, at first, to S. infuscata of the same author. Both these names 

 appear to have been bestowed upon the same species, which is South 

 American, and entirely different from the Mexican and United States 

 bird, which is more closely allied to the European passerina. Dr. Sclater 

 proposed, in 1857, to separate the North American from the Mexican, 

 under the name of G. calif ornicum. 



I saw the Pyamy Owl several times at Fort Whipple, and secured two 

 specimens, which were fortunately male and female. The peculiarly 

 retiring and unobtrusive habits of the Owls renders them difiicult of 

 observation, and less frequently met with than their numbers would 

 lead us to expect. Judging with due regard for this fact, 1 take it that 

 this bird is common in the wooded regions and mountainous por- 

 tions of Arizona. Une of my specimens was moulting ; the other, taken 

 in winter, was fa. perfect i)lumage. This warrants the belief that the 

 species is resident about Fort Whipple, and that it breeds there, though 

 I was not fortunate enough to discover the nest, which, with the eggs, 

 remains almost unknown, so far as I am aware. It will probably be found 

 to mate and lay very early in the year — in March, if not in February. 

 As a well-known general rule, the Owls breed earlier than most bird's, 

 for some unexplained reason, but probably on account of their nocturnal 

 habits, and the quiet seclusion in hollow trees and other sheltered 

 places, in which most of their time is spent. Eemoved in a great meas- 



Stiniia passerinoides, AuD., Syn. lii'.id, i'i ; B. Am. i, 117, pi. 30. 



Glauddium infuscatum, Cass., 111. 1854, lr"-J. — Nkwb., P. E. E. Eep. vi, 1857, 77 (not of 



Temmiiiek). 

 Glancidium cjnoma, C.vss., Baird's B. N. A. ISS"-'. 62 (not of Vaijler). — Heei;m., P. E. E. 

 Ei-|i. X, 1859, pt. vi, 31.— Coop. & Suck., N. H. Wash. Ter. 1860, 158.— Cab., J. 

 f. O. IfGi, 336; Ueb. Berlin, ilus. 1869, 207.— Loed, Intellect. Observer, 1865, 

 409 (biography).— COUES, Pr. Phila. Acad. 1866, 50 (Arizona). 

 Glancidium californicum, SCL., P. Z. S. 1857, 4. 



Glaucidium 2><i>ise>'inum var. californicum, EiDGW., apud Cot'E.s, Key, 1872, 206. — ElDGW., 

 Pr. B ^st. Soc. xvi, 1873, 92, 94 (critical examination of all the forms of the 

 genus).- B. B. & R., N. A. B. iii, 1874, 81. 

 Sab. — The true passerinum is European. Var. californicum is from the Western 

 Province of Xorth America. North to Oregon. East to Colorado. South on the table- 

 lands of llexico. I regard it as very probable that the Strix data of Natferer's Mss., 

 which is said by Bonaparte to differ from passerinnm in the greater length of the tail, is 

 really this variety ; for the length of tail is precisely one of the main characters ad- 

 duced by llr. Eidgway in his excellent monograph of the genus. Should this prove to 

 be the case, the bird 'will be known as G. passerinum var. datum. 



The onlj' other North American species of this genus is the following : 

 Glauceditoi ferkugineuji, (Maxim.) Kaup. 



Strix ferruginea, Maxim., Eeise, i, 1820, 105; Beit, iii, 234.— Tamil, P. C. 199. (Identi- 

 fied by Strickland with the Sparrow Owl of L.vth., Gen. Hi.st. i, 373, pi. 17.) 

 Noctua ferruginea, Steph., Gen. Zool. siii, pt. ii, 69. — Less., JIan. i, 111 ; Tr. Orn. 104. — 



Crv., E. A. 2d ed. i, 346.— Tscn., Wiegm. Arch. 1844, 267; Fn. Peru. 19, 117. 

 Surnia ferrugin^, Bp., 0.>spi\-. Cnv. E. A. 56; Isis, 1833, 1053. 

 Athene ferruginea, Gkay, Gen. of B ; Li.st B. Brit. Mus. 92. — Bp., Consp. Av. i, 1850, 38. — 



Strickl., Orn. Syu. 18.j5, 162. 

 Glancidium ferrugineam, Kaup, Mon. Strig. Cont. Orn. 1852, 104. — Bcrm, Th. Bras, ii, 

 141, 146.— Cab., Ueb. Berl. Mus. 1869, 206.— CouEs, Am. Nat. vi, 1872, 370 

 (Arizona, Bendire; first introduction to fauna of United States). — Codes, Key, 

 1872, 206.— EiDGW., Pr. Bost. Soc. xvi, ls73, 100 (critical).— B. B. & E., N. A. 

 B. iii, 1874, 85. 

 Baft.— Eastern South America, and whole of Middle America, to the southern border 

 of the United States. 



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