Page:Condor12(5).djvu/32

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174 THE CONDOR VoL. XII Dark-bodied Shearwater (Puj?qnus griseus). Abundant at sea during our en- tire trip. Black Petrel (Oceanodroma melania). Common out at sea. None of these birds were seen within a mile or two of land at any time and, altho we made par- ticular search for evidence of their breeding, we found none. We left San Miguel on the evening of June 23, and arrived in San Pedro the afternoon of the 24th, well satisfied with the results of. our trip, but glad to be out of the everlasting wind. FIKOM FIELD AND STUDY Larus canus: a Correction.--Shortly after my record of the capture of a young Mew Gull (L. canus) appeared in THE CONDOR (vol. VIII, p. 75) I received two gulls from North Carolina in immature plunmge, one of which was evidently the Ring-billed (L. delawarens:s) and the other intermediate between this and my Pacific Beach bird. This made me strongly suspect that both these were also L. delawarensis, and later I was able to compare these skins and other Ring- billed Gulls with a series of European specimens of L. canus in the collection of Dr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., with the following result: L. canus has a more slender bill and shorter wing and tail than L. delawarensis; but the male L. canus is the same size as the fenrole of L. delawarensis, tho the bill is slightly more slender. This slight difference in size is the only character separat- ing the young of the two species in first winter plumage. My bird should therefore stand as L. delawarensis, and to this species, I suspect, most California records of L. canus belong.- Louis B. BISHOP. A Southern California Spring Record for the Common Tern.--May 24, 1910, I took two specimens of the Common Tern (Slerna hitundo) from a flock of 12 or 15 that were fishing near the outlet of the Los Angeles outfall sewer at Hyperion Beach, Los Angeles County. The birds taken were adult male and female and were in almost full summer plumage. So far as I know, there are only two previous records for this species in southern California and they are both in the fall. One of these records was by H. W. Marsden at Pacific Beach, San Diego County, in September, 1904; and the other by C. B. Linton at Alamitos Bay, Los Angeles County, in September, 1907. These instances have both been previously recorded in THE CoNDOR.--G. WILLETT. Cowbird again Noted in Los Angeles County.--On July 1, 1910, with George Willett and Antonin and Alphonse Jay, I was down in the lowland willows, and we found three nests of the California Cuckoo (Coccyzus a. occidentalis)--one with young less than a week old, one nest with four eggs, and one with three eggs. While passing along the road we observed a bird which I am morally sure was a female Cowbird (21Iolothrus a. obscurus?) as it was considerably less in size than a female Brewer Blackbird, and of the umber brown color thruout, of the eastern female cowbird. While in the willows, Antonin Jay discovered a nest of the Traill Flycatcher, with two eggs of its own and one of the cowbird; and while I was watching the cuckoo with her brood of young, a male yellowthroat came hopping along with a young cowbird in close tow, coming within ten feet of where I sat. This youngster was fully fledged, but still bobtailed, and was about twice the size of the yellowthroat; the yellowthroat would frequently ruu up to him and put something into his bill. The little fellow was, as nearly as I could make out, quite streaked.--J. EUGENE LAW. An Additional Song Sparrow for Californla.--A California-taken song sparrow recently submitted to me for deternfination proves to be 21Ielospiza melodia caurina Ridgway. It is identical in every respect with numerous skins of 21I. m. caurina in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology collection, from several localities in southeastern Alaska. I have never seen anything like it before from California. The specimen is a female, no. 34, collection of C. Irvin Clay, arid was obtained at Eureka, Humboldt County, California, February 20, 1910. Mr. C. I. Clay, who personally secured this rare bird, writes me that this same individual was first seeu on January 17, and was noted on five subsequent occasions, always in exactly the same locality,. up to February 20 when it was shot. The bird staid among drift-wood on the ocean beach. It was shy, and would run along in the shelter of logs, peeking over occasionally,