THE CONDOR [ VOL. V Stray Notes From Southern Arizona BY F. H. FOWLER (Second Paper,) LF OWL. The smallest, as well as one of the most interesting of all our owls, is about the commonest of the family in southern Arizona. Its favorite nesting-place is the sahuara cactus and so "familiarity breeds contempt" only in the few cases where it abandons its beloved cactus and nests in a sycamore, cotton-wood, mesquite, or other tree. The only nest I found I came upon by accident. For some time I had kept watch of a pair of ant-eating woodpeckers that were excavating a nesting site in a sycamore stnb, and at last when I judged there ought to be a full nest of eggs, I went out to secu're it, armed with a ladder, saw, and sledge hammer. The hole was about thirty feet from the ground, and was easily reached by a man sent up the ladder, who, after sawing the stub half off, knocked away the top with the sledge. No sooner had he taken a peep into the shallow cup that remained, than he snatched off his hat and crammed it into the opening, shouting to my father at the same time, "Captain, here's one of them air little owls." And after another look, "She has three eggs, too!" The eggs and birds were soon safe in our hands, and the former are now among the most prized specimens of my collection. The parent was a very close sitter, and made no attempt to leave the eggs, even strug- gling to remain on them. About this time another of the species which was found sitting in the lower branches of a live oak, in a canyon a few miles south of the post, was collected by Dr. A. K. Fisher. So small is this owl that my father, who first saw it, called to the Doctor, "Say, here is a little owl about an inch and a half long," and he was very much surprised at the greater size of the bird, when he got a chance to examine it. At Fort Bowie, on October 5, I893, the bartender in the sutler's store caught the only one I noted at that place. Capt. Bendire found them breeding commonly in the sahuaras near Tucson, and says in his paper on this species, in the first volume of his work, that, al- though they probably breed wherever found, the only eggs obtained (up to that time) had been collected at, or near that place. ARIZONA WOODPECKER. The Arizona woodpecker (Dryobates arizonm) is, out- side of the alpine three-toed and pileated, the most interesting member of the woodpecker family, that I have ever seen. So far as I have noted, the species is never common, never noisy, and never at rest. I have not found it except in live- oak woods, and at Fort Huachuca; on a good field day I used to see about six on an average. Not even the chickadees are as active as this little woodpecker. He will alight on the main trunk of the tree, or generally on one of the largest limbs, and the moment his claws are fastened in the bark he begins an untiring search for insects and grubs. He ascends rapidly in spirals picking and prying away small pieces of bark in search of food; when a promising limb is reached out he goes on it, often' on the lower side. The search over in one tree, he wastes no time in looking around, but launches out, with barely a glance to determine the course, in his undulating flight to the next, there to repeat the performance. When closely approached, he works around the tree without paying any especial attention to the intruder, and when thoroughly frightened he will take flight with FOr ?x-plaua?ory' int'r0duetion to tiaese notes se?
