ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES
THE OWLS
Pygmy Owls
Also of small size, as may be inferred from the name, are the so-called Pygmy Owls (Glaucidium) of which some thirty species are known, ranging over much of the tropical and temperate portions of the Old World excepting Australia, and in the New World over the southern portions of North America and practically the whole of South America. These little Owls have a small, rounded head without ear-tufts, tubular nostrils which open in the somewhat swollen cere, quite short and rounded wings with the fourth quill usually longest, and a densely feathered tarsus.
To that section of the genus which is characterized by having the upper parts more or less spotted with white, belongs the American Pygmy Owl (G. gnoma), a bird from six and a half to seven and a half inches in length, which inhabits the western United States east to Colorado and New Mexico, and south to the highlands of Mexico.
The back is slaty grayish or brownish in color, the top of head spotted or dotted with white or buffy, the sides of the breast brownish spotted with paler, and the lower parts whitish striped with blackish; the tail is crossed with white bands. It mostly frequents wooded districts, although it is occasionally found at some distance from timber, and is diurnal in its habits, feeding and flying about during the daytime, although it is perhaps more commonly abroad in the early dusk and morning. It is a tame and unsuspicious bird, and is apparently at times more or less sociable, as Mr. Henshaw speaks of finding them in small companies in New Mexico. It feeds on insects, small mammals, and birds, as well as reptiles and batrachians. Major Bendire relates an amusing incident of one attacking a large gopher which carried it along for some distance on its back. Its presence is usually little noticed by other birds, though occasionally it is mobbed like its larger relatives.
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