148 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XI 
found. Nests ranged from seven to twenty-five feet from the ground and were 
mostly in Gilded Flicker holes, tho sometimes a natural cavity was utilized. In 
most cases the sitting female seemed to be in a trance and made no resistance when 
taken from the nest. One bird when lifted from three downy young seemed com- 
pletely dazed, and sat on my hand for a minute or more, then gravely tumbled back 
into the nest. A pair have nested for two years in a willow tree in a front yard 
here at the school. In the evening they are quite noisy and fly back and forth 
from the nest tree to a certain other tree nearby. The old ones seem to provide 
for and look after the young for some time after maturity of the latter. 
Burrowing Owls, or, more properly, Ground Owls, are rare in this immediate 
vicinity, tho said to be more numerous on down the Gila river. I have seen only 
four here; one was dug out of a hole on the school farm by Indian boys; and 
another flew up in the face 
of my team one evening near- 
ly causing a runaway. The 
Fimas call this owl Kau-kau- 
ha'. 
The little Ferruginous Pig- 
my Owl is fairly numerous 
and may be seen flying about 
in the daytime. They are not 
wild and the observer may ap- 
proach as near as ten or fifteen 
feet before flight is taken. 
The bird will sit quietly with 
eyes staring at you, all the 
while impudently jerking his 
tail from side to side in a 
most undignified and un-owl- 
like manner. His call, given 
usually in the evening, is a 
diminutive hoot, repeated at 
short intervals. The only 
complete set found contained 
four eggs, and was discovered 
by seeing the bird leave the 
nest while I was a short dis- 
ance from the tree and be- 
fore any alarming demonstra- 
tion had been made. She was very shy about returning to the nest. After re- 
turning, she hesitated some time before venturing into the hole, and when she did 
enter, she came out at once for a look around. At my first movement she hastily 
left the nest again, and when she came back her mate accompanied her. This nest 
was in a deserted Gila Woodpecker’s hole 20 feet from the ground in a cottonwood 
tree. While they are sitting on a tree in plain sight they are not shy, but when in 
a hole they are very timid, afraid of being captured I suppose. A few times I have 
seen a head stick from a hole but every time the bird got out before I could ap- 
proach very near. 
At Agua Caliente I heard one of the owls hooting repeatedly one hot day, and 
investigating, found two hummingbirds busily attacking him as he sat in a 
mesquite tree. I began to look for his mate and soon saw a promising looking Gila 
