56 Notes on the Lewis Woodpecker.- While on a surveying trip in July of last year, I was very much struck with the great number of Lewis woodpeckers (?tsyndesmus torquatus) breeding in the vicinity of Sardine Valley in Nevada County, California. This valley is a couple of square miles in extent, fairly flat, and usually affords good feeding ground to a large herd of dairy stock. Last year and the year before, this feeding range has had to be abandoned by the dairy. people early in the season, owing to a plague of grasshoppers of a wingless variety. Lewis woodpeckers evidently knew of this, for last year they were to be seen all day long, flying from the valley with grasshoppers to feed their young, and almost every old dead pine or blasted stump had a voracious family of these youngsters in it, yell- ing all day long. This species was the only one that showed any appreciable increase in numbers in consequence of the increase in insect food. I noted western robins (A[erula ?n. propinqua), Brewer blackbirds (?'.uphaffus cyanocephalus) and a few dull colored sparrows feeding on the grasshoppers but not in any great numbers.--Jott? J. WH, L?x.?IS, ?lpple- gate, Cal. News Notes The First Iuternational Forestry, Fish and Game Exhibition, under the auspices of the Pacific Coast Forest, Fish and Game Associa- tion, will be held at Mechanics' Pavilion, San I:'rancisco, April x to ?5 inclusive. Group C.-- Animals and Birds, is under the direction of Dr. F. W. D'F, velyu (37-39 Phetan Building) who desires for exhibition purposes l?ve birds (any variety, water fowl, game, shore, or in- sectivorous); stuffed and mounted specimens of birds; skins prepared for scientific demonstra- tions, nests and eggs, eggs in collections. Diplomas of Merit or Certificates of Participa- tion will be awarded on the recommendation of a Special Jury. In writing to Dr. D'Evelyn. as all members who can aid are urged to do, state whether specimens can be supplied as a loan, purchase, or donation to the Association. Mr. John W. Mailliard has recently returned from an extended trip to the eastern states. Mr. H. H. Bailey has gone to San Bias, Mex- ico. Mr. W. O Emerson writes that the first Allen hummer arrived at Haywards on the morning of February 5. Mr. Edmund Heller, under date of February 8, writes from New Orleans:"We have 'finished' Mexico and are now about to leave this port for Puerto Barrios, Guatemala where a year will be speut collecting the larger mammals and birds of the republic. During the fall we succeeded in securing a good series of ante- lope, mule deer, white-tailed deer, peccaries, beaver, and turkeys in Coahuila, Mexico. A THE CONDOR I VOL. VII great m?[ny birds were sec(tred at Sabinas, Coa- huila, which is on one of the tributary rivers of the lower Rio Grande, and is near the iunc- tion of the western and eastern faunas. great variety of bird life occurs there and I do not suppose it would be difficult to get 600 species in a year's work. For winter residents they have such typical eastern and western birds as the phcebe and Say phcebe, eastern bluebird, Audubon warbler, brown and curve- billed thrashers, black vulture, Harris hawk, bob-white. scaled partridge, boat-tailed grackle, and Brewer blackbird. Turkeys were not rare and in one night's hunt I got three 'whales.'" In the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, Feb. ?, ?9o5, p. 95, Dr. C. W. Richmond calls atteution to the fact that Syruphernia Rafin., founded upon Tringa semi- palmata Wils. [Ereuncles pusillus (L)] can not stand as the genus of the willet, being a synonym of Ereuncles. Caloptrophorus Bona- parte is the next available name. Ossifraga ?s untenable so that ,?[acronectes Richmond becomes the generic name of the giant fulmar. Mr. Robert Ridgway is spending the winter in Costa Rica. Dr. Edgar A. Mearns has recently published two papers ou new species of Philippine birds. Notes on the California Vulture Wanted For a year or more I have been very success- ful in gathering notes for my monograph on the California vulture. Many of you have received letters from me and I wish to thank you again for the many valuable notes the answers contained. I am going to push the work now and wish that all who can wo/ald give me information in regard to the width of the extended wings and weight of the speci- mens in the meat with the sex and age of same, also any other notes that are of interest. I will say here in regard to the eggs of the Cali- fornia vulture, that they are not nearly so rare as supposed. I have found in actual ex- istence thirty-five specimens of which twenty- four are perfect. The first authentic date I have of a specimen being taken is April ?859 , in the mountains back of Santa Monica near the place called Canejo. This egg is second class and owned by Mr. J. H. 'Guruey of England. The most taken any year was in ?9oo when eight were secured, and the last that I have record of was taken February ?, ?9o3 . The breeding season runs from February H, [?9o3] incubation well advanced to June [?899] incubation fresh. I will be glad to cor- respond with anyone on this subject, so do not hesitate to write me as I wish to make the monograph as complete as possible. W. L. Cn?BEt?S, Santa Monica, Calif. Just as this page is being 'locked up' we learn that the bird bill has become a law. In order to collect legally a permit must now be secured from the State Board of Fish Commissioners, San Francisco.
