The Pygmy Owls 



white shadowed by tawny; cheeks, sides, and a narrow band across jugulum, color of 

 back or a little lighter, and similarly spotted; throat and central patch of breast below 

 band pure white; remaining underparts white, coarsely streaked with sepia, the streaks 

 tending to coalesce in stripes central!}-. Bill and cere greenish yellow; feet dull yellow, 

 with soles of bright chrome; claws yellow basally, blackening on tips; iris bright yellow. 

 Immature birds are darker and redder brown above; the tone of the head is grayer, 

 inclining to slaty, in decided contrast to back; spotting much reduced, nearly confined 

 to forehead and wings. Length 152. 4-190. 5 (6.00-7.50); wing 93.6 (3.685); tail 65.9 

 (2.59); bill from cere 10.9 (.43). Female a little larger. 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow size; chunky appearance; carries tail at angle; 

 more unicolored above than Flammulated Screech Owl, and sharply striped (instead 

 of mottled) below; larger than Elf Owl. 



Nesting. — Eggs: 3 or 4; short oval, white; laid in old woodpecker hole or, rarely, 

 in natural cavity. Av. size 29.5 x 23.4 (1. 16 x .92); index 80. Season: About June 1st; 

 one brood. 



Range of Glaucidium gnoma. — Western North America from southern British 

 Columbia south to Guatemala. 



Range of G. g. californicum. — The Pacific Coast states and southern British 

 Columbia, except the humid coastal strip, east to northwestern Idaho. 



Distribution in California. — Resident in timbered Upper Sonoran and Tran- 

 sition zones of the central and southern mountain systems. Intergrades with grinnelli 

 in San Luis Obispo County and the Mt. Shasta region. 



Authorities. — Heermann (Athene infuscata), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 

 ser. 2, ii., 1853, p. 260 (Calaveras R.); Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1857, p. 4 

 (orig. desc. ; Calif.); Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. i., 1892, p. 403, part; 

 Sharp, Condor, vol. ix., 1907, p. 87 (Escondido; desc. nest); Swarth, Condor, vol. xii., 

 1910, p. 109 (San Bernardino Mts. ; desc. juv. and nest; food). 



No. 221b Coast Pygmy Owl 



A. O. U. No. 379a, part. Glaucidium gnoma grinnelli Ridgway. 



Description. — "Similar to G. g. californicum but much browner, the general 

 tone of upperparts varying from deep snuff brown to verona brown; spots on upperparts 

 (especially those on pileum and hindneck) distinctly fulvous or rufescent" — Ridgway. 

 Size not appreciably different. 



Remarks. — A recently elaborated form in whose validity I have small faith. 

 There is an undoubted tendency toward richer and darker coloring in all our coastal, 

 especially humid coastal, forms, but the wonder is, in this case, that the tendency has 

 been so stoutly resisted. Examples of this species from Puget Sound do, undoubtedly, 

 average a little richer and darker than specimens from, say, the southern Sierras, yet I 

 have before me a specimen from Seattle which is just perceptibly (say two vibrations to 

 the million) darker than another from the Sierra Madre Mountains, with not enough of 

 difference to found a quinquenomial on. 



A "rufescent phase" has not been recognized in our Pacific forms, as it has in 

 typical G. g. gnoma; but a specimen (Mus. Vert. Zool. No. 4396) of a bright brussels 

 brown color, taken by Dr. Cooper in Marin Co., in 1873, is either such, or else an extra- 

 ordinary example of the fading to which these owl-brown shades are liable. 



Range of G. g. grinnelli. — The Pacific Coast district, broadly, from central 

 California to southern British Columbia and Vancouver Island. 



Distribution in California. — Resident in the humid coastal strip, broadly 



II2Q 



