Page:Condor21(2).djvu/28

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74 THE CONDOR Vol. XXI Egretta.candidissima candidissima. Snowy Heron. One was seen in a rice field four miles east of Maxwell on August 21, and another west of Live Oak, on Butte Creek, August 24. A third bird was observed near Maxwell on September 8. In all of these cases these herons were in company with the larger Egrets. Lobipes Iobatus. Northern Phalarope. On August 18 these birds were abunda nt in the region east of Maxwell, and remained fairly common in pools in the rice fields in the area between Maxwell and Willows until September 8. Ereunetes im.auH. Western Sandpiper. Common near Maxwell from August 19 to October 3. Limosa fedoa. Marbled Godwit. Seen in small numbers east of Maxwell from September 5 to 8. Aluce pratincola. Barn Owl. A dead Barn Owl was found in a road near Maxwell on August 21, and another on October 2. Both had been killed by striking wires, rather an unusual accident with such night prowlers as these. Another Barn Owl was flushed from an oak west of Live Oak on August 24. On September 15, west of Gridley, one was seen circling low over a rice field in bright sunshine, about three in the afternoon, and another was shot in a grove. The birds were apparently fairly common in occurrence here. Grinnell (Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, p. 69) has recorded them in the Sacra- mento Valley only as far north as Woodland. Chordeiles virginianus hesperi?. Pacific Nighthawk. One observed near Live Oak on August 26. Sayornis sayus. Say Phoebe. One seen near Stonyford on October 5. Pica nuttalli. Yellow-billed Magpie. This interesting species was common among the oaks in a narrow area near the center of the Sacramento Vall ey between Marysville and Tehama. It was not unusual to find them in flocks of a dozen or more. Several were taken. Biological Survey, Wast?ingto,?, D.C., January 15, 1919. NOTES FROM THE FEATHER RIVER COUNTRY AND SIERRA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA By JOSEPH MAILLIARD ASTING around for a profitable locality in which to pass a good portion of the spring months of 1918, the region around Blairsden, on the Feath- er River, Plumas County, California, seemed to combine many desirable qualities together with the additional attraction of having been little, if ever, worked over from an ornithological standpoint. On this basis of reasoning several weeks were passed in this vicinity, between Mohawk, just across the river from Blairsden, at an elevation of 4300 feet, and Johnsville, farther up in the. mountains, at 5200 feet altitude. As the summer approached, the base of operations was shifted to the Sierra Valley, Sierra County, altitude 5000 feet, where stays were made at Loyalton and Campbell's Hot Springs (about a mile from Sierraville). These two places are at the edge of the open Sierra Val- ley, where sagebrush and pine forest meet, and not more than fifteen or twenty miles from the Nevada state line. Nothing startling was expected from this trip, and the results were mostly only corroborative of what one would naturally anticipate finding in such local- ities as those visited. Yet there are a few items in my notebook that appear to be worthy of recording. haetura vauxi, Vaux Swift. Noted at Campbell's Hot Springs, one and a half