408 LIFE HISTORIES OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



oval in shape, about the size of the well known egg of the little Whitney's 

 or Elf Owl, but can be readily distinguished from these by the different 

 texture of the shells. 



Mr. Charles A. Allen, writing me about the California Pygmy Owl from 

 Nicasio, California, says: "In this section it inhabits the heavy coniferous 

 forests, and is rather difficult to obtain at any time. Its love note is a soft 

 low musical 'toot- toot,' repeated at intervals of a few seconds between each 

 call. During the mating season, which commences here about the last of 

 February, these birds can be heard any still morning up to 8 or 9 o'clock, 

 and if it be dull and cloudy to nearly 11 o'clock; after that hour they 

 remain silent until sundown. I consider them good weather prognosticators, as 

 I hear them invariably just before a storm. After the breeding season is over 

 and during the summer months they remain silent. The male when calling 

 usually selects one of the tallest trees and perches near the topmost branches. 

 Their food consists of small birds and mammals, and I have found them feeding 

 on Pipilo oregonus and Habia melanocephala, and also saw one pounce down on 

 a Tamias townsendi sitting on a log, seize it and fly up into a large red- 

 wood tree, where I found it feeding three young which were sitting on a 

 limb close beside it, and crowding one another to obtain the food as fast as 

 the parent could tear it up into suitable pieces for them." 



Prof. 0. B. Johnson, in his "List of the Birds of the Willamette Valley, 

 Oregon," referring, I think, to this bird, says: "Quite common; I have not 

 seen the nest. They are savage little fellows and will attack cage birds in 

 daylight, and I know of two that suffered death thereby." 



As with the preceding subspecies, nidification commences in May, and 

 occasionally not before June. The number of eggs to a set seems to be 

 three or four, and probably but a single brood is raised in a season. As 

 the egg of the California Pygmy Owl is indistinguishable from that of the 

 Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, as far as size and shape are concerned, and of which 

 a specimen is figured, I have not illustrated it. 



144. Glaucidium gnoma hoskinsii Brewster. 



hoskin's pygmy owl. 



Glaucidium gnoma hoskinsii Brewster, Auk, v, April, 1888, p. 136. 



(B — , C — R — C — , U 3796.) 



Geographical range : Lower California. 



Mr. William Brewster, who first described this new subspecies, speaks 

 of it as being "similar to Glaucidium gnoma californicum, but smaller and 

 grayer, the forehead and fascial disc with more white and the upper parts 

 less distinctly spotted." 



The type specimen, an adult male, was taken in the Sierra de la Laguna, 

 Lower California, May 10, 1887, by M. Abbott Frazar; and two others were 



