46 
THE CONDOR 
VOL. VI 
elf owl is in the deserted woodpecker holes common to saguara or giant cactus of 
the desert region of the country. Strangely enough this plant {Cereus giganteus) 
also finds its western line of demarkation in the same stream. To the general 
observer the characteristics of the country, on either side of the river, are identi- 
cal, but conditions, evidently, are different. On the Arizona side the saguara is 
widely distributed and is, frequently, of great growth, but in California it occurs 
only as stragglers in an unresponsive land. To locate the elf owl in California it 
became necessary to locate this cactus there also. For a time the location of one 
promised as many difficulties as the other. In reply to numerous inquiries, ver- 
bally and by letter, I learned that a few straggling specimens of the saguara were 
to be found in the Duncan Flats, or as it is known to some people, the Senator Mine 
Basin, between twenty and twenty-five miles north of here, on the California side 
of the river, and that others were to be found opposite Ehrenberg, also west of the 
river, about one hundred miles further north. So far as I now know there are 
none in the intermediate country. 
Hereabouts the nesting season of Micropallas whitneyi may be said to com- 
mence about the end of the first week in May, and to continue at intervals 
throughout the month. Knowing this I had arranged to examine the cactus on 
the Duncan Flats on or about May tenth, (1903), but was delayed till the seven- 
teenth. At that time the Colorado riv^er was over-running its banks and travel 
was both difficult and dangerous, the intersecting sloughs being full of water and 
their bottoms slippery and uncertain. All told there are probably a dozen sagu- 
aras in the flats, and they are scattered over a radius of several miles. The large 
ones contained numerous woodpecker holes and because of their apparently worn 
exterior had the appearance of being occupied. The first one examined stood at 
the intersection of several small gulches; it was set with numerous arms, all wood- 
pecker bored, and offered an ideal nesting place for numerous small owls, but to 
my surprise, the only life it contained was a nest of gilded woodpeckers {Co/aptrs 
clirysoides.) Although I cut into and carefully examined every promising hole I 
did not find even a feather of the bird I was looking for. Because of my long 
familiarity with this owl and its ways I generally know where to expect it, but 
here the best of indications went for nothing. Such a tree in southern central 
Arizona would have been richness itself. Although I examined everything in 
that direction I found nothing till I reached the last cactus in the upper end of the 
Basin. In this one, at an elevation of about twenty feet, I found four partially 
incubated eggs of an elf owl. They were black and apparently cold. From a 
hole on the other side of the cactus an owl flew to the opposite bank of the wash 
in which the cactus was standing, gave one of the characteristic cries, then flew to 
a bush further up the gulch where it was taken. It proved to be a nesting female 
and was, undoubtedly, the mother of the four eggs. This was my first find of the 
bird and its eggs in California. In the topmost hole of the same cactus I found 
five eggs of a sparrow hawk. They were partially incubated but not sufficiently so as 
to injure them. In another cactus some three hundred yards north and in the 
same wash, I found a second nest of the elf owl. It also contained four partially 
incubated eggs, and, in this case, the female was on the nest. High up in the 
same cactus, was the nest of a woodpecker. The young in it were very noisy. I 
did not see the parent birds and did not interfere with them. In still another 
cactus I came across a Mexican screech owl (yl/. a. cuieraceusP) and four young 
ones. The latter were about ten days old. A nest of Gila woodpeckers (^Mela 7 i- 
erpes w'opygialis) completed my day’s work in the field, but not in getting home. 
I could not find a male owl although I looked high and low for them. 
