404 LIFE HISTOEIES OP NOETH AMEEICAN BIEDS. 



in which Grouse were usually found feeding at that time of the year. Hearing 

 the sergeant fire (he could not be seen from where I was standing), I called 

 to him and asked what he had shot. His reply seemed at the instant rather 

 strange to me. It was, ' Captain, I shot a baby Owl riding on a rat; I have 

 got them.' Had I not known the sergeant to be a strictly sober man, not at all 

 addicted to drinking, I should have readily agreed with him 'that he had them,' 

 and laid it to overindulgence in something stronger than water on that par- 

 ticular morning; but when I climbed up to where he was standing the matter 

 was fully explained. 



"It appears that a tall old pine tree had been uprooted years ago by 

 some of the heavy wind storms that occasionally sweep over that region, and 

 the roots of it were lying partly under a younger and bushy tree of the 

 same species that was taking the place of the older one in the course of 

 nature. The massive trunk of the old tree was free from limbs for about 

 40 feet, and was slowly but surely decaying. A large sized gopher, which 

 perhaps, found a congenial home amidst the roots of the old tree, on hear- 

 ing the noise the sergeant made in his approach, had climbed up on to the 

 trunk of the tree, possibly to get a good view of the intruder and to warn 

 the balance of his family, when, quick as a flash, a little Pygmy Owl that 

 had been securely hidden among the branches of the growing pine, dropped 

 down with unerring aim on its victim and fastened its_ sharp little talons 

 securely into the astonished gopher's back. Sergeant Smith's attention was 

 drawn to the performance by a squeak from the gopher, which, in trying 

 to escape, ran along on top of the fallen pine almost its entire length, 

 making rather slow progress, however, hampered as it was by the Owl, when 

 the sergeant fired, killing both. During this time, nearly a couple of minutes, 

 the Owl sat upright on the gopher's back, never letting go its hold an 

 instant, twisting its head nearly off the body in trying to keep an eye on 

 the sergeant, who was rapidly approaching, but apparently showing no un- 

 easiness whatever. He told me that the whole thing was done in such a 

 business-like manner that it was evidently not the first ride of the kind this 

 little Owl had so taken. It held on to its prey even in death. (I published 

 a short account of this occurrence at the time in the Proceedings of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History (Vol. xvin, October 6, 1875). Both speci- 

 mens are in the U. S. National Museum collection.) 



"I also met with the Pygmy Owl on several occasions at Fort Klamath, 

 Oregon, and remember quite distinctly seeing one (presumably the same in- 

 dividual) several times at various hours of the day, sitting patiently, but 

 wide awake, on a single long and slender willow branch overhanging Fort 

 Creek, but a little distance from the post. I refrained from shooting it as I 

 suspected it nested in the vicinity, and it would also have been rather diffi- 

 cult to secure. I cannot say positively, but think that it used that particular 

 perch for no other purpose than to catch frogs. The willow overhung a 

 marshy, reed-covered spot, where the water was rather shallow, and which 



