512 Colorado College PuBLICATIo^f 



temptingly toward him he seized it as usual but instead of 

 swallowing it he very carefully laid it on the ground, took one 

 cautious sniff of it and then dropped his tail and went into 

 his kennel. No owls have been served at the Aiken table since 

 that. 



Glaucidium gnoma pinicola. Rocky Mountain Pygmy Owl. 



Resident ; probably more common than is generally sup- 

 posed but often escapes notice from its habit of sitting quietly 

 on a branch as a person passes by. 



This little owl ranges to timberline, breeding from 8,000 

 feet up, having been known to nest at the Strickler Tunnel at 

 almost 12,000 feet. It comes down to the plains in winter and 

 at such times is not uncommon. It has been known to make its 

 winter quarters in a barn on a ranch. 



The bird seems to be of a perfectly fearless disposition, 

 paying little heed to the presence of man, and often attacks 

 birds larger than itself. William Unruh, in the winter of 

 1874-5, shot into a flock of Bohemian Waxwings on a dead 

 pine tree and dropped several, when a Pygmy Owl which had 

 been perching in the same tree flew down and seized one of 

 the wounded birds as it reached the ground, and was shot by 

 Unruh with the Waxwing in its claws. 



Wallace Hook said that he was once walking through the 

 edge of some timber in the mountains when he saw one of 

 these owls dart after a flying Long-crested Jay, bearing it to 

 the ground. 



February 1, 1900, a Pygmy Owl was brought to Aiken 

 which had been caught at the Garden Ranch near Colorado 

 Springs under very peculiar circumstances. Two men were 

 at the house on the ranch and heard the squalling of birds. 

 They ran out to see what was going on and reaching the steep 

 bank of the arroyo in which the creek there runs saw a Pygmy 

 Owl and Bob-white Quail-by the edge, of the water. The owl 



