S6 
THE CONDOR 
1 Vol. IV 
tailed by climbing up to all the holes 
seen in the dead pine trees and stumps. 
But in most cases a blow with a rock or 
club against the stump is considered a 
sufficient test as to whether the tene- 
ment is occupied. 
So when I rapped at the base of a 
dead pine stump with a deserted white- 
headed woodpecker’s hole near the top, 
and no sign of life appeared, I was 
about to move on, but the hole looked 
too promising and I decided to investi- 
gate further. Before starting to climb 
up the sixteen feet to the nest I stood 
on the hillside above the tree and 
threw a big rock against the top. The 
whole side split off down as far as 
the bottom of the hole and out flew a 
little owl, and perched on a fir tree a 
few jmrds away. We had no shot-gun 
but my companion carried a 41 -Colts, 
long barrel. I reached that and flred 
at the bird, missing of course. It flew 
across a canyon and perched high in 
another tree fifty or si.xty yards away. 
I was disgusted and handed back the 
pi.stol hopelessly. But my friend had 
been in the habit of breaking glass bot- 
tles thrown into the air so he took the 
pistol and brought down the owl at 
long range the first shot. 
We then turned our attention to the 
stump and saw a suspicious mass of 
hair and fibre resting on what was left 
of the now exposed bottom of the hole. 
I shinned up the stump as carefully as 
possible for fear of shaking the nest 
loose. It was made of felted hair and 
fibre similar to the nest of a chickadee. 
In it were two nearly globular white 
eggs with incubation 'ust begun. The 
bird was somewhat shot up by the 41- 
caliber bullet but I preserved the skin 
and packed it away for future reference. 
It lay neglected till May 1897 when I 
sent it to Dr. C. Hart Merriam for ident- 
ification. He pronounced it the little 
flammulated screech owl {Megascops 
flamnieolus idalioensis). I have investi- 
gated nearly every deserted wookpeck- 
er’s hole seen since then and rapped 
on many pine stumps but have seen 
no more of Megascops. 
Winter Plumage of the Black-tailed Gnatcatcher. 
BY H. S. SWARTH, I.OS -CXGKI.RS, CAI.. 
I N the few works containing any de- 
tailed account of the black-tailed 
gnatcatcher {Polioptila califoniica) 
but little information is to be found con- 
cerning the changes of plumage gone 
through by the male bird, the author 
usually contenting himself with the 
statement that the young male resem- 
bles the female. It is a bird, moreover, 
whose life history is, I think, known to 
but few ornithologists, and I doubt if 
any extensive series of specimens has 
been taken through the year, showing 
the changes of plumage undergone by 
the male. I was under the impression, 
as is, 1 believe, the general idea, that 
during the fall and winter months the 
two sexes were always indistinguish- 
able; and that the black cap, the dis- 
tinguishing mark of the male, was 
acquired by moult during the early 
spring months. 
This may be true in part, but that it 
is invariably the rule is a mistake. I 
had taken many specimens between 
.'\ugust and March showing no black on 
the head, with the exception of the al- 
most invisible black streak over the 
eye, which is, I believe, always present 
in the male; and others during March 
and April undergoing moult over the 
entire crown; so I was the more sur- 
prised on taking on Dec. 13, 1901, a 
male bird with the black cap nearly 
complete, though not quite as extensive 
as in most sprfng specimens, and with 
the black feathers tipped with theblue- 
gra}" color of the rest of the upper 
parts, so that the black was not appar- 
ent unle.ss the feathers were ruffled. It 
