320 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Nest. —In woodpecker holes. Eggs: 3 or 4, white or creamy. 
Food. —Small mammals, scorpions, beetles, and other insects. 
General Habits. —At home in the elevated plateaus of Guate¬ 
mala and central Mexico and in the mountains of the southwestern 
United States, the little Flammulated Screech Owl has been taken in 
Estes Park, Colorado, at an altitude of probably 10,000 feet. Though 
little known, it seems to be strictly nocturnal and to differ little in 
habits from its relatives. Its call note, however, Dr. Joseph Grinnell 
says, is a peculiar one, a single mellow “whoot," repeated at regular 
intervals. 
The -nest found by Mr. Ligon thirty miles west of Chloride was 
in a canyon in a dead pine snag about forty feet high and its old 
woodpecker holes were occupied not only by the Owls but by a pair of 
House Finches and one of Chestnut-backed Bluebirds. In climbing the 
tree to examine the nests of the smaller birds, Mr. Ligon frightened 
the Owl so that she flew out of her nest hole, when he secured her, 
after which he climbed back to examine her nest. The entrance was 
about flicker size and went down about eight inches, beyond which a 
hole led to the center of the tree in which was the nest. The cavity 
was about ten inches deep and the nest was a collection of cottonwood 
twigs and bark and a few of the birds' feathers, on which lay two 
slightly incubated eggs. 
The bird which Mr. Ligon collected in 1920 was at the time “ sitting 
on the loose fine rock of a slide, under thick brush" (MS). On the 
Indian School campus at Santa Fe, Mr. Jensen found one sleeping 
in a peach tree in the orchard, and another dead under a light wire. 
One found by Mr. H. H. Kimball in the San Francisco Mountains 
was roosting in a road-camp “garage, made out of upright pine poles 
roofed with galvanized iron," in which a three-ton truck was kept. 
As Mr. Kimball remarks, “evidently it had found the semi-darkened 
interior of the building a satisfactory resting place during the day" 
(1928, p. 129). 
One of the little Owls that Mr. Willard photographed in Arizona 
sat within eight feet of him, presenting “a very comical picture . . . 
opening first one eye and then the other, like a sleepy child, in an 
endeavor to accustom herself to the glare of the bright sun" (1909c, 
p. 202). 
PALLID HORNED OWL: Bubo virginianus pallescens Stone 
Description. Male: Length 18-23 inches, wing 13-13.7, extent about 49-52, 
tail 7.7-8.8, bill 1.3-1.4, weight about pounds. Female: Length 22-25 inches, 
wing 14-14.8, extent about 57, tail 7.8-9.3, bill 1.4-1.7. Ear-tufts large, feet densely 
feathered to claws. Dichromatic: Light gray phase. Adults: Facial ring black, 
collar white , plumage irregularly varied with buffy, tawny, whitish, and dusky; 
