BIRD LIFE IN WASHINGTON 
95 
CALIFORNIA PIGMY OWL 
The California Pigmy Owl is a day bird. 
He is a cute trusting fellow but little 
larger than a sparrow. 
On my way to school one morning I 
heard what I thought might be a small 
donkey engine. The whistle came from a 
ditsance of about a quarter of a mile. On 
returning from school I heard my engine 
in the opposite direction. I inquired, but 
no one knew of a donkey engine in the 
neighborhood. Still the mysterious whis- 
ties continued. I could hear them almost 
any hour of the day and far into the night. 
t/ u o 
One Saturday I was watching Pygmy 
as lie sat upon a stump. In a tall fir 
some distance away was another Pygmy 
Owl. From the fir came that same whis¬ 
tle. After a moment’s silence, I heard it 
again. 
Then my bird on the stump raised him¬ 
self slightly and answered in the same 
tones. The secret was out. But what a 
noise to come from so tiny a throat! 
This little owl is very unsuspicious of 
danger. Any one can approach within 
four or five feet of him. From the top of 
a stump he watches the approach of his 
visitor almost as fearlessly as a house kit¬ 
ten might. Sometimes one may almost 
touch him with the hand. 
Many times, when a long distance aAvay, 
my field glass has shown him to me sitting 
