AND OOLOGIST. 
95 
February, 1882.] 
t remained unique in collections 1 believe 
ior more than ten years afterwards. 
While I was stationed in the southern 
[iortion of Arizona Territory, during the 
•ear 1872, I had the pleasure of securing 
l everal specimens of this then little known 
pecies. I found the first one in a dense 
ivillow thicket near Rillitto creek, and close 
0 the present site of Camp Lowell, about 
even miles from Tucson, the principal 
own of the Territory, about the beginning 
i)f April, 1872. Under date of April 20th, 
■anie year, I find the following entry in one 
|)f my note books : “ Shot a very small Owl 
his morning, about the size of a Blackbird, 
A’hich I take to be Ur. Cooper’s Micrathcne 
vhHneyi. I found it in a dense willow 
hicket near Rillitto creek, and although I 
nade a good deal of noise, it allowed me 
0 approach quite close. Length, scarcely 
ix inches.” 
Under date of April 22d, 1872, I find a 
letailed description and measurement of 
.nother specimen. I omit part of the de 
cription as this is well known now, but 
i;ive the measurements and other notes as 
aken down at the time. 
I ‘ Length of specimen (sex not given) to 
nd of tail, 5.75 inches, to end of claws, 
•.50 inches. Extent of wings, 14.50 inch- 
|s; tail, 2.25; iris, sulphur yellow; length 
i>f tarsus, .80 inches; color, light gray, 
urning into dirty yellow about the toes; 
>ill, greenish yellow; tarsi and toes thin- 
y covered with bristly feathers. These 
ittle Owls seem to be arboreal in their 
'labits as well as nocturnal, always fre- 
[uenting dark and shady places in the thick- 
st bushes and shrubs. While down in the 
lillitto creek bottom this evening, a little 
fter sundown, I followed the sound of a 
teculiar noise, apparently coming from the 
dge of a dense mesquit thicket, and which 
had previously heard in several similar 
ocalities, without, however, being able to 
liscover its author. By carefully examin- 
ng every tree in the vicinity, I at last saw 
nother of these little Owls on a horizontal 
imb of a good sized Mesquit tree, about 
sixteen feet from the ground. After watch¬ 
ing it some minutes, during which time it 
uttered its peculiar call notes repeatedly, 
without appearing to be at all disturbed by 
my intrusion. I shot it. Its notes resem¬ 
ble as near as I can come to expressing 
them on paper the syllables of cha-chu, 
cha chu, frequently repeated in different 
keys; sometimes quite loud, then again so 
low and plaintive that the bird could scarce¬ 
ly be heard more than twenty steps off. 
The one I shot yesterday was sitting quite 
erect and perfectly motionless and might 
easily have been taken for a part of the 
limb on which it was sitting. This one was 
in a more natural position and looked 
shoiter and thicker. They are not very 
rare here.” 
Specimens sent to leading ornithologists 
subsequently proved the birds to be of this 
species. Unfortunately I am unable to 
give much information about its nesting 
habits, although I found what I supposed 
to be one of their nests, in May, 1872, with 
fully fledged young ones, in a hole of an old 
mesquit stump in the Rillitto creek bot¬ 
tom. 1 was enlarging another hole in the 
same stump, but lower down, to examine it, 
when I noticed a couple of young birds of 
this species fly out from above me, and on 
investigation I found a cavity about twelve 
inches deep containing some old leaves, 
pieces of bark and a few feathers, but noth¬ 
ing else. There may have been more 
young birds, I only saw the two, however. 
The eggs of this Owl as far as I am 
aware still remain unknown. The late Col. 
Grayson found this species on some of 
the islands near the west coast of Mexico. 
I think it will only be found as a summer 
resident in Arizona, but now that this Ter¬ 
ritory is so easy of access by rail, it should 
not be long before we are fully informed of 
its breeding habits as well as those of num¬ 
berless other equally rare and interesting 
species which pass their breeding season 
within our southern borders. 
Two other species almost equally inter¬ 
esting were found by me in the same vicin- 
I 
