Page:Condor20(1).djvu/47

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46 THE; CONDOR Vol. XX to invade the valley about Keddie, so residents informed me. Otherwise they keep pret- ty well to the spruce above 4000 feet. Yet a single bird was flushed from a log near my cabin, altitude 3200 feet, September 22. The Canada Nuthatch (//itta canadensis) was the only nuthatch recorded, and it was everywhere present in the coniferous growth from Keddle upward. Final dates for some other species are: Black-chlnned Hummingbird (Archil0chu? alexandri), September 11; Olive-sided Flycatcher (Nuttallornis borealis), September 11; Western Wood Pewee (Myiochanes ?ichardsOni ?icha?dsoni), September 27; Western Tansget (Piranga ludoviciana), September 15; Black-throated Gray Warbler (Dend?otca nighescorts), September 9--all at about 3200 feet altitude.--AvsTIN PAUL SMITH, HoustOn, Texas, Dec?mbe? 5, 1917. The Status of the White-rumped Petrels of the California Coast.--In a care;ul re- view of the Leach Petrel and its races, Oberholser (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 54, October 19, 1917, pp. 165-172) concludes that three subspecies of Oceanodroma Ieucorhoa .?should be recognized from the North Pacific: O. ?. leucorhoa (Vlelllot) from the vicinity of the Kuril and Aleutian Islands; O. ?. beah Emerson, from southeastern Alaska south to Ore- gon, and migrating "south to the coast of California"; and O. I. le?eclingi, from the coast

and islands of Lower California and southward, and "north probably also to southern 

California". The O. beltlintel of Emerson, described from the coast of Oregon, is placed as a synonym of beali. Access to adequate material representative of kaed?ngi has en- abled Oberholser to properly characterize that form and to establish its membe?ship in the leucorhoa series. Undoubtedly Oberholser's decisions in regard to the names in the group will stand. And since all specimens of kaedingi actually examined come from south of the Mexican line, that rigroe-must, for the present anyway, be removed from the California list, no matter what the probabilities may be. Oberholser apparently had no white-rumped petrels at all from the coast of Cali- fornia. The present writer is fortunate in being able to offer some supplementary data which show conclusively that it is the race beali that breeds on the coast of California, at least to the northward. There are in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology ten white-rump- ed petrels from the coast of California. Five of these are skins of adults and are listed with measurements in the following table. 7O9O 21425 21427 21428 214?9 Norking Sex Locality Date Collector Wing Tail Culmen Tarsus tall ? Pisreon Pt. Lisrht, San Mateo Co. May 7, 1899 C, Littlejohn 145.7 78.0 14.8 ?.9 16.9 Double RoCks, Humboldt Co, July 4, 1911 C. I. Clay 154.6 79.4 14.8 23.4 15.1 ? Double RoCks, Humboldt Co. July 4, 1911 C. I. Clay 154.7 80.$ 14.9 ?3.7 18.7 ? near Trinidad. Humboldt Co. July 16, 1911 C. I. Chy 149.5 81.1 15.2 25.7 16.5 ? near Trinidad, Humboldt Co. July 1?, 1911 (I. I. Clay 156.0 7?.2 15.8 25.1 18.4 It will be seen from the above measurements, if used in comparison with Ober- holser's tables, that California birds in so far as specimens are available are distinctly of the race beali, rather than of the much smaller race kaedingi. The bird from the coast of San Mateo County, of date May 7, indicates strongly that the white-rumped petrel known to have bred on the Farallones is beali also. I know of no specimens from the Farallones now extant in any Museum. Three young with more or less down in their plumage are in this Museum (nos. 16718-16720) taken near Trinidad, Humboldt County, September 4, 1910, by Joseph Dixon, and also one downy young (no. 25526) taken near Eureka, Humboldt County, August 24, 19i?, by Franklin J. Smith. The four adults listed in the table as from Humboldt County were breeding birds, as was another (no. 170?8) of which only the skeleton was saved.--J. Gm?-NELL, Museum O! Vol"toby'ate Zoology, Be?l?eley, Cali!o?nia.