A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 3. Robert Ridgway
and stripes on sides, much darker than the back; tail-bands 7 (♂)–8 (♀), not continuous; toes only scantily haired. Wing, 3.50–4.00; tail, 2.50–2.80; culmen, .43–.48; tarsus, .60; middle toe, .55. Hab. Western Province of North America. Table-lands of Mexico … var. californicum.
B. Markings on the crown longitudinal and linear.
2. G. infuscatum. Tail dark brown, crossed by six to seven non-continuous bands of white, narrower than the dark ones. Above varying from grayish-brown to reddish-umber and sepia. Beneath white, the stripes on the sides grayish-brown or dark brown, like the back.
Above dark sepia, or blackish-brown. Tail brownish-black or deep black. Wing, 3.70–3.90; tail, 2.50–2.90; culmen, .45; tarsus, .65–.80; middle toe, .65–.70. Hab. Eastern South America … var. infuscatum.33
Above grayish, or reddish-umber. Tail clear dark brown, or grayish-umber.
Wing, 3.60–3.90; tail, 2.35–2.75; culmen, .45–.50; tarsus, .65–.80; middle toe, .60–.70. Hab. Middle America, from the Rio Grande (probably in Texas) to Panama … var. gnoma.34
3. G. ferrugineum. Tail crossed by seven to nine continuous bands of dark brown and bright rufous, of nearly equal width. Above varying from grayish-brown to bright ferruginous; beneath varying from pure white to pale rufous, the stripes on the sides like the back. Wing, 3.70–4.15; tail, 2.20–2.90; culmen, .45–.50; tarsus, .70–.80; middle toe, .70–.75. Hab. Tropical America, from southern border of United States to Southern Brazil.
Glaucidium californicum, Sclater, Proc. Zoöl. Soc. Lond. 1857, p. 4. Glaucidium passerinum, var. californicum (Ridgway) Coues, Key, 1872, 206. Strix passerinoides (not of Temminck!), Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 271, 1831. Glaucidium infuscatum (not of Temm.!), Cass. Birds of Cal. & Tex. p. 189, 1854.—Newb. P. R. R. Rept. VI, iv, 77, 1857. Glaucidium gnoma (not of Wagler!), Cass. Birds N. Am. 1858, 62.—Heerm. P. R. R. Rept. VII, 31, 1857.—Coop. & Suck. P. R. R. Rept. XII, ii, 158, 1860.—Coues, Prod. Orn. Ariz. p. 14, 1866.—Cab. Jour. 1862, 336.—Lord. Int. Obs. 1865, 409 (habits).—Gray, Hand List, I, 42, 1869.—Cab. Ueb. Berl. Mus. 1869, 207.
Sp. Char. Adult (♂, 12,054, Puget Sound, Washington Territory; Dr. C. B. Kennerly). Above, including the auriculars, umber-brown, with a faint reddish cast; this tinge most apparent in a sharply defined band across the throat. The continuity of the brown above is interrupted by a scarcely observable collar round the nape of concealed whitish; this is discernible only laterally, where there is also an inconspicuous black space. Whole head above, and neck behind, with numerous small circular spots of reddish-white; back, scapulars, and wings more sparsely and more minutely marked with the same; the two or three lower feathers of the secondary coverts have each a terminal, somewhat oval, larger spot of pure white. Secondaries crossed by three (exposed) bands of pure white, and narrowly tipped with the same; the bands formed by semicircular spots on the outer webs. Primaries almost plain, but showing faintly defined obsolete bands,—the third, fourth, and fifth with two or three conspicuous white spots on outer webs, beyond their emargination; primary coverts perfectly plain. Tail considerably darker than the wings, and purer umber; crossed with seven narrow bands of pure white, the last of which is terminal and not well defined,—these bands are formed by transverse spots, not touching the shaft on either web. Lores, sides of the forehead, sides of the throat (beneath the cheeks and ear-coverts), and lower parts in general, pure white; the ante-orbital white continuing back over the eye to its middle, but not beyond it. Lateral portion of the neck and breast (confluent with the gular belt), and sides, umber, like the back, but more numerously, though more obsoletely, speckled, the spots rather larger and more longitudinal on the sides. Breast, abdomen, anal region, and lower tail-coverts with narrow longitudinal stripes of nearly pure black. Jugulum immaculate. Tarsi mottled on the outside with brown. Lining of the wing white; a transverse patch of blackish across the ends of the under primary coverts, formed by the terminal deltoid spot of each feather; a blackish stripe, formed of blended streaks (parallel with the edge of the wing), running from the bend to the primary coverts. Under surface of primaries dusky, with transverse spots of white anterior to the emargination; these white spots on the longest quill are eight in number. Axillars plain white.
Wing, 3.60; tail, 2.60; culmen, .45; tarsus, .60; middle toe, .55. Wing-formula, 4, 3, 5–2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1.
♀ (36,874, Fort Whipple, near Prescott, Arizona, October 11, 1864; Dr. Coues). In general appearance scarcely different from the male. Upper surface more ashy, the specks of whitish less numerous, being confined chiefly to the head; those on the scapulars, however, are large, though very sparse. The middle wing-coverts have each a conspicuous roundish white spot near the end of the outer web; the secondary coverts are similarly marked, forming a band across the wing. The primaries and tail are as in the male, except that the latter has eight, instead of seven, white bands. The brown of the gular band extends upward over the throat to the recurved feathers of the chin; the white dots in the brown of the sides are considerably larger and (though very irregular) more circular than in the male; the stripes on the abdomen, etc., are rather broader and less deeply black than in the male. Wing, 4.00; tail, 2.80; culmen, .48. (Wing-formula as in male.)
Hab. Pacific Province of North America, from Vancouver Island southward; Arizona (Fort Whipple); Colorado (El Paso Co., Aiken); Table-lands of Mexico (Coll., G. N. Lawrence). Perhaps whole of the Western Province, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific.
One specimen in the collection (59,069) differs from those described in much darker colors. The original label is lost, but it was probably received from the northwest coast, as the darker, more reddish colors bear about the same relation to the paler gray tints of the southern birds that the dark northwest coast style of Scops asio (var. kennicotti) does to the true asio. The stripes beneath are nearly pure black, the general tint above being a reddish sepia-brown. Wing, 3.65; tail, 2.70.
The Glaucidium californicum requires comparison only with the G. passerinum of Europe, to which it is quite closely related, though easily distinguishable by the characters pointed out in the diagnoses; it is not at all like gnoma, nor indeed any other American species, with which it has been confounded by nearly all ornithologists, even by Cabanis, in his excellent paper above cited.
Glaucidium californicum.
I have seen only one Mexican specimen of this species, which is one in Mr. Lawrence’s collection; the locality is not given, but it is probably from the higher regions of the interior. It differs in no respect, except in size, from North American examples; it measures, wing, 3.40; tail, 2.60.
Habits. This species, one of the smallest of our North American Owls, was first obtained on the Columbia River by Dr. Townsend, near Fort Vancouver; and subsequently, Dr. Merideth Gairdner procured several others from the same locality, which were sent to the Edinburgh Museum. Dr. Townsend’s specimen was said to have been taken on the wing at midday.
Dr. Cooper met with a single specimen in Washington Territory early in November, 1854. He observed it among a flock of Sparrows, that did not seem at all disturbed by its presence. At first he mistook it for one of these birds. Its stomach was found to contain only insects.
Dr. Suckley obtained two specimens at Puget Sound, where he found it moderately abundant. It seemed to be diurnal in its habits, gliding about in shady situations in pursuit of its prey. He saw one about midday in a shady alder-swamp near Nisqually. It flitted noiselessly past him several times, alighting near by, on a low branch, as if to examine the intruder.
Near a small lake in the neighborhood of Fort Steilacoom, Dr. Suckley frequently heard the voice of a diminutive Owl, which he supposed to come from one of these birds, as this is the only small species of the family he ever saw in that neighborhood. The notes were subdued and clear, like the soft, low notes of a flute.
Dr. Newberry procured specimens of the