NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 249 



This bird ■was first described by Mr. William Brewster. It is smaller and grayer 

 than the California Pygmy Owl. The type specimen wastaken by M. Abbott Frazar, 

 May 10, 1887, in the Sierra de la Laguna, Lower California. Nothing is known con- 

 cerning its habits and eggs which doubtless are similar or identical with those of 

 the two preceding; races. 



380. FEUBUaiWOUS PYGMY OWL. Olaucidvim phalwiiOidcs (Da.ud.) Geog 

 Dist. — Southern border of the United States, from Texas to Southern Arizona, south 

 to Southern Brazil. 



The Ferruginous Pygmy Owl is a resident of the southern border of the United 

 States, breeding in the valley of the Rio Grande in Texas, and in Southern Arizona. 

 In Mexico its nests have been found in the hollows of trees or in those excavations 

 made by woodpeckers. A set of four eggs was taken near Brownsville, Texas, from 

 a nest in a woodpecker's hole in a mesquite tree, about ten feet from the ground on 

 May 3, 1890. The eggs are white, glossy and average in size 1.10x.91. Two sets of 

 four eggs each of this species are in Mr. C. W. Crandall's collection. They were 

 taken by Mr. Frank B. Armstrong in Tamaulipas county, Mexico, May 6 ard 16tli, 

 respectively, 1895. The eggs in both cases were simply laid in the hollows in old 

 trees, sixteen and eighteen feet from the ground. Th^ first set taken measures as 

 follows: 1.08X.90, l.lOx.89, l.llx.88, 1.13x.91 inches; the second, 1.08x.88, 1.10x.90, 

 l.lOx.90, l.llx.88 inches. The average size of the eight eggs is l.lOx.89 inches. They 

 are remarkably uniform in size and are miniatures of the Screech Owl's eggs. 



381. ELF OWL. Micropallas wliitiieyi (Cooper.) Geog. Dist. — Southern Ari- 

 zona, Southeastern California, Lower California, south to Southern Mexico. 



. One of the smallest of all raptorial birds, first discovered by Dr. J. G. Cooper, 

 the type specimen being an adult male, taken near Fort Mohave, California, April 

 26, 1861. Others were afterwards taken by Col. Grayson on islands off the western 

 coast of Mexico. Major Bendire took several specimens in the dense mesquite 

 thickets, near Rillito Creek, about seven miles from "Tucson, Arizona, in April, 1872. 

 He also found one of their nests with -fully fledged young in a hole of a mesquite 

 stump. This Owl was found to be common by Mr. F. Stephens in the desert region 

 about Tucson and Camp Lowell. Mr. W. B. D Scott states that it is decidedly the 

 commonest Owl breeding in Southern Arizona (Pima, Pinal and Gila counties), and 

 is very abundant during the breeding time, nesting in the woodpecker holes of the 

 giant cactus. The eggs range from two to four in number, ordinarily three. Mr. 

 Scott took a set of five from a nest. On one occasion, near Fuller's Ranch, about the 

 last of May, 1883, Mr. Stephens and Mr. Scott collected a large number of the birds 

 and their eggs in a few hours. Mr. Walter E. Bryant has a set of two eggs taken 

 near Tucson, Arizona, May 28, 1885, by Mr. Herbert Brown. The nest was In an 

 abandoned woodpecker's hole, in a cactus about twenty feet from the ground; the 

 cavity was about eight or nine inches deep. The eggs measure 26.5x23.5, 26x22.& 

 mm.* Mr. Emerson has a set of three, taken by Mr. Stephens near Camp Lowell, 

 May 24, 1884. They were found in a woodpecker's burrow in a giant cactus, ten. 

 feet from the ground. The sizes are 27x23, 26x23 mm.t A set of three eggs collected 

 near Camp Lowell are pure white, nearly globular, and measure 1.04z.93, 1.09x.91, 

 1.12X.91. These were taken from a woodpecker's hole in a giant cactus twenty feet 

 from the ground. 



• l,t)4x.93, 1.02X.89. 

 tl.06x.91, 1.02X.91, 1.06X.91. 



