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Micrathene, Coues, P. A. N. S. Philad. 1866, 57. (Type, Athene whitneyi, Cooper.)

Gen. Char. Size very small (the smallest Owl known); head small, and without ear-tufts. Bill and feet weak. Tail short, less than half the wing, even. Nostril small, circular, opening in the middle of the much inflated ceral membrane. Tarsus a little longer than the middle toe, naked, scantily haired, as are also the toes. Four outer quills with their inner webs sinuated; fourth longest. Ear-conch very small, simple, roundish. Bill pale greenish; iris yellow.

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Micrathene whitneyi.

This well-marked genus is represented by a single species, found in the Colorado region of the United States, and in Western Mexico. It is the smallest of all known Owls, and has the general aspect of a Glaucidium. From the fact that feathers of birds were found in its stomach, we may reasonably infer that it is of exceedingly rapacious habits, like the species of that genus.

Species

M. whitneyi. Above grayish olive-brown, sprinkled with small, rather obscure, spots of pale rusty, and interrupted by a whitish nuchal collar; outer webs of the lower series of scapulars pure white. Wings spotted with white and pale fawn-color; tail grayish-brown, crossed by five to six narrow interrupted bands of pale fawn-color. Eyebrows and lores pure white; a cravat of the same on the chin. Beneath white, marked with large, rather longitudinal, ragged blotches of pale rusty, mottled with dusky. Bill pale greenish; iris yellow. Length, 5.50–6.25; extent of wings, 14.25–15.25 (measurements of freshly killed specimens). Wing, 4.00–4.40; tail, 1.90–2.30. Hab. Fort Mohave, California (April), and Socorro Island, west coast of Mexico.

Micrathene whitneyi, Coues

WHITNEY’S OWL

Athene whitneyi, Cooper, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sc. 1861, p. 118. Micrathene whitneyi, Coues, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1866, 15.—Elliot, Illust. Am. B. I, xxix.—Grayson (Lawrence), Ann. N. Y. Lyc.—Coues, Key, 1872, 207.

Sp. Char. Adult (♂, 208, J. G. Cooper, Fort Mohave, California, April 26, 1861). Above umber-brown (less pure and uniform than in Glaucidium), each feather with an irregular, transversely elliptical spot of pale rufous, these largest on the forehead, bordering the white eyebrows; the feathers everywhere minutely mottled transversely with darker, this being most noticeable where bordering the yellowish spots. Scapulars with their outer webs almost wholly white. Wings with the ground-color a little darker than the back; lesser coverts with numerous spots of light rufous, there being two on each feather, one concealed; middle and secondary coverts with a very large oval spot of pure white terminating the outer webs, the white spot on the latter preceded by a pale rufous one. Secondaries with five (exposed) bands of pale ochraceous (the last terminal), these passing into white on the edge; primary coverts with three large ochraceous spots; primaries with about six (including the terminal) conspicuous spots of the same, those anterior to the emargination, on the third, fourth, and fifth quills, almost white. Tail like the wings, but more uniform; crossed by six irregular narrow bands of pale ochraceous, the last, or terminal, of which is not well defined; these do not touch the shaft, and on the inner webs they are pure white. Lores and eyebrows, cheeks, lining of the wings, and ground-color of the lower parts, white; ear-coverts and sub-orbital space like the crown, but more rusty; lateral lower parts much washed with plumbeous, this especially prevalent on the flanks. Behind the sharply defined white of the cheeks is a black transverse wash. Throat, jugulum, breast, and abdomen, with each feather having a medial longitudinal ragged-edged blotch of pale rufous, these blotches most clearly defined on the abdomen, more confused anteriorly; anal region and tibiæ almost immaculate; tibiæ with numerous transverse narrow blackish bars, on a pale ochraceous ground. Lining of the wing faintly spotted at the bend, and on the primary coverts, the terminal half of which is plain dusky; under surface of primaries blackish, with obscure transverse paler spots,—those anterior to the emargination almost white; those beyond darker, the last being scarcely distinguishable; on the longest quill eight can be detected. Wing-formula, 4, 3=5–2, 6, 7, 8, 9–1. Length, “6.25”; extent, “15.25”; wing, 4.40; tail, 2.30; culmen, .35; tarsus, .80; middle toe, .60.

A male from Socorro Island (49,678, Colonel A. J. Grayson) is less adult than the preceding. The upper plumage is more brownish and more mottled; the rufous spots, though deeper and larger, are less sharply defined; the spots on the primaries are all ochraceous; the bands on the tail are broader, though of the same number. Beneath the longitudinal blotches do not appear, but the rusty rufous covers nearly the whole surface, leaving the medial portion only white, and this not well defined; the rusty shows ragged minute transverse bars of blackish. The whitish collar round the nape is also better defined than in the type. Wing, 4.20; tail, 2.10. Wing-formula, 4, 3=5–6, 2–7, 8, 9, 10, 1. Length, 5.20; extent, 14.25.

Another specimen, 50,765, from the same locality, also apparently immature, is just like the preceding in plumage. It measures, wing, 4.00; tail, 1.90.

Micrathene whitneyi.

Habits. The type specimen of this diminutive species was shot at Fort Mohave, in the Colorado Valley, latitude 35°, April 26, 1861, and two others have since been taken on the Socorro Islands, off the western coast of Mexico, by Colonel Grayson. It is smaller even than the little California Pygmy Owl, and is therefore the smallest known to inhabit North America. It resembles that species in its colors, but is thought by Dr. Cooper to be more similar to the burrowing Owls in its generic characters. It was found in a dense thicket, on a very windy morning, and where it may have taken only a temporary refuge, after having been blown down from some of the caverns in the barren mountains surrounding the valley. In its stomach were found the remains of insects and the feathers of small birds. Several specimens of this Owl were taken in Arizona by Captain Bendire, one of which is now in the collection of the Boston Society of Natural History. Captain Bendire also found one of their nests, with two fully fledged young ones, in a hole of a mesquite stump.