August, 1881.] 
AND 00 LOG I ST. 
47 
California Pigmy Owl. 
{Glauridimn (/noma.) 
Concluded from p. 30. 
twenty of these diminutive Owls within a 
radius of a quarter of a mile ; their calls to 
each other were incessant, and from all 
(Erections at once. I foimd no^ difficulty 
in imitating them, and in a few moments 
had one of the little fellows sitting in a 
high pine above my head, answ'ering note 
for note.” 
Dr. Heermann met with it in the moun¬ 
tainous districts of the mining regions of 
California, where it was by no means rare. 
In 1852, he. procured three specimens on 
the borders of the Calaveras river; others 
were taken on the Cosumnes river, and J. 
G. Bell met with it on the American river. 
The specimen from which this engrav¬ 
ing was taken was shot by Mr. Charles A. 
Allen, Nicassio, Marin Co.., Californitt, and 
purchased by Mr. Jos. M. Wade. I will 
quote Mr. Allen’s account of the capture 
and history of this bird as given in his let¬ 
ter of January 10, 1878 ; 
“I have but a single skin of the Pigmy 
Owl, and that I shot under peculiar circum¬ 
stances. Was out deer hunting. Decern 
her 31, with a friend from Fr’isco ; the 
dogs were driving a deer and I was trying 
to get a position for a shot, when I saw 
the Owl fly and alight on a large pine tree 
about one hundred and fifty feet in height. 
As I wanted Mr. Pigmy more than the 
deer, I sat down and got a dead rest over 
my knee and fired away, when the bird 
dropped twenty or thirty feet down and 
lodged in the thick branches of the tree 
where I could not see it, or I should have 
shot the limb off with my rifle. But I had 
to climb, and such a climb I don’t think 
many collectors ever had. The tree was 
,about seven feet ii7 diameter at the base ; 
|lmt I got up and down all safe, and 
I send the same bird to you. I can give 
you but little information respecting these 
ibirds as I have seen so few ; but so far 
is I know, they inhabit the heavy dense 
Iforests of pine and red-wood, and all 
I find are in the tops of trees from seventy- 
five to two hundi’ed feet high. In the 
spring, from the middle of February to the 
middle of March, on a warm sunny morn¬ 
ing, just after sunrise up to about nine 
o’clock A. M., any one acquainted with these 
birds will hear a low, soft, musical toot— 
toot—toot, repeated at intervals ; and it is 
done, as near as I can discover, during the 
mating season by the male, and continues 
xqi to the time the female commences to in¬ 
cubate ; after this time they again become 
silent and cannot be found unless acciden¬ 
tally. Of their nest and eggs I know noth¬ 
ing, having never found one, although I 
have repeatedly searched for them for the 
23ast three years. Some writers claim that 
they feed on insects, etc., but my experi¬ 
ence shows they desire more substantial 
food, such as small birds, mice and squir¬ 
rels. In June, 1875,1 was in a deeji canon, 
searching for green black-cap flycatchers 
{Myiodioctes pnsillus, var. pileolatiis.) I 
had just seen one of these birds dart into a 
bush and was w^atching for a chance to 
shoot, when something darted down in 
front of me like a flash and fastened to a 
striped squirrel that had been sitting on a 
log about twenty feet from where I stood, 
and flew with it to a large dead pine tree ; 
and then I saw it was a Pigmy Owl, and on 
the branch were three fully fledged young 
ones, and they all came to the old bird and 
were fed by her. After the squirrel was 
devoured, I shot one of the young and the 
rest took flight into the thick foliage of 
some neighboring red-v oods and I lost 
them. On a calm still morning the notes 
of these little Owls can be heard about a 
mile in the light atmosiihere of the hills 
and mountains out here.” 
I rom the testimony of these various col¬ 
lectors, it is quite evident that the Pigmy 
Owl is not nocturnal in its habits, but seeks 
its food mostly at twilight and early morn, 
and like the Siiarrow-hawk, it is insectivor¬ 
ous where grasshojipers, crickets and bee¬ 
tles abound ; and where these are wanting 
it is ecpially exjiert in cajituring small birds. 
