Pygmy Owl 213 
noticed an extra chamber off the passage, which he 
supposed was for the male bird. The eggs are laid on 
a bed of horse or cow droppings, broken up fine, and 
there is usually an accumulation of food-remains, and 
other filth as well, while the whole spot swarms with 
fleas and is very ill-smelling. The eggs number from 
seven to nine; they are rounded ovates in shape, and 
pure white in colour when clean, though usually very 
nest-soiled. They measure about 13 x 11. Gale 
found fresh eggs from May 10th to 20th; Dille gives 
May 22nd, while Bendire states that fresh eggs have 
been found at Fort Collins as late as July Ist. 
A set of five eggs in the Colorado College Museum, 
presented by I. C. Hall, were taken by him near Greeley, 
May 10th, 1903. They were found at the end of a prairie- 
dog’s hole, seven feet long and a foot deep, and were 
placed on a bed of horse manure. A large toad was 
also found in the hole. 
Genus GLAUCIDIUM. 
Small Owls, wing under 4:0; facial disk hardly developed ; no ear- 
tufts; ear-openizigs normal; nostrils circular, opening well within the 
cere; wing short and rounded; tail long, slightly rounded, about ? 
of wing; tarsus densely feathered ; toes bristly. 
A large genus of small Owls chiefly met with in the Tropics, with 
three species and one subspecies in the United States. 
Pygmy Owl. Glaucidium gnoma. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 379—Colorado Records—Ridgway 73, pp. 185, 
195; Henshaw 85, p. 79; H. G. Smith 87, p. 284; 96, p. 76; Morrison 
88, p. 115; 89, p. 67; Kellogg 90, p. 90; Bendire 92, p. 403; Lowe 
94, p. 268; Cooke 97, pp. 81, 161, 206; Henderson 03, p. 235; 09, 
p. 230; Gilman 07, p. 154. 
Description. Above slaty-brown, with small round spots of white 
on the head and larger ones on the wing-coverts; w collar of mixed 
white and black round the back of the neck; wing- and tail-quills a 
duskier brown, marked with white spots on both webs; chin and fore- 
breast white, separated by a brown band ; rest of the under-parts white, 
