March, 18(S2.] 
AND OOLOGIST. 
The Spotted Owl. 
The life history of the Spotted Owl, Strix 
Occidentalis [Xanthus) Ridgw., like thatof 
Whitney’s Pigmy Owl, is still short and 
sweet; in fact there is nothing about it on 
record. I don’t profess to be able to en¬ 
lighten the readers of the O. and O. much 
on this subject, but every little helps. 
It was discovered by Mr. Xanthus de 
Vesey in the Sierra Nevada mountains, 
near Fort Tejon, Cal., and described by 
him in the proceedings of the Philadelphia 
Academy in 1859, the type specimen re¬ 
mained unique in collections till I redis¬ 
covered tliis species in the Southern por¬ 
tion of Arizona Territory in the Spring of 
1872. Making a nice skin in those days 
was not one of my accomplishments, in fact 
I only commenced taking an interest in 
Ornithological matters about that time, 
and as I at first mistook this bird for the 
common Barred Owl, I paid but little at¬ 
tention to it. Referring to my notes I 
found the measurements of the only speci¬ 
men preserved by me, meagre enough and 
as follows: Length 17.25 inches, wing 12 
inches, tail 9 inches, extent of wings 42.25 
inches. Iris dark bluish black. Presented 
to Mr. Robt. Ridgway, Smithsonian Insti¬ 
tute. No date, and sex not indicated, proba¬ 
bly a male. This ends the record. 
Under date of April 17th, 1872, I find 
the following entry in my record book of 
eggs collected: 
Aj^ril 17th, ’72.—Nest and single egg of 
Barred Owl No. 54^ found near Whqjples 
Station, nine miles west of Tucson. Tliis 
nest appears to have been built by the birds 
themselves. It was composed of small 
sticks and twigs and lined with dry grasses, 
pieces of bark and a few feathers jilaced 
close to the trunk of a large cottonwood 
tree, about thirty feet from the ground and 
easily seen from below. One of the parents 
was sitting on the nest and shot with a rifle 
after flying off, but not preserved. As the 
locality where this nest was found was some 
sixteen miles from my camp on Rilletto 
Creek, I took the single egg it contained 
along, without waiting for the bird to com- 
jilete the set. Had I known at the time 
what a prize I had I would ^villingly have 
ridden fifty miles to secime the full set. 
There is no doubt whatever that the egg 
belonged to this species. It measimes 
about 2 inches in length by 1.70 in breadth, 
is globular in shape and like all Owl’s eggs 
white, and the shell somewhat granular. 
It is impracticable for me to give the exact 
measurements of the egg as it is stored 
with a portion of my collection in St. Louis, 
Missouri. The specimen sent to Mr. Ridg¬ 
way was shot some time subseqently to my 
finding this nest, as I noticed on a critical 
examination of this bird that it differed 
from the Barred Owl in its markings. The 
species appeared to me common enough, 
and now since the advent of railroads into 
the territory, it will not be long before the 
spotted owl will find its way more fre¬ 
quently into the hands of eastern ornitholo¬ 
gists. As nearly as I can remember the 
common call note of this owl resembles 
almost exactly the hooting of his cousin in 
the east and is likewise on the “Who cooks 
for you” style. As far as I know the only 
other locality where it has been found out¬ 
side of the places mentioned is at the Big 
Trees, Calaveras Comity, Cal., where Mr. 
L. Belding of Stockton, Cal., took a pair of 
these birds in the Summer of 1880. I have 
been constantly on the lookout for this 
species in my various wanderings through 
the mountain regions of Oregon, Washing¬ 
ton, and Idaho Territories, but so far have 
seen no positive evidence of its occurrence. 
I have had more than once an owl without 
ear-tufts described to me by both trappers 
and Indians, which, on account of the sup¬ 
posed size given, was more likely to apply 
to this species than to the Great Gray Owl, 
which I know occurs sometimes here and 
which I have met with at Fort Lapwai, 
Idaho, in 1870, where it breeds.— Chas. E. 
Bevdire^ U. S. A. 
