Nov., 1913 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 229 writer he made a statement which seems of sufficient interest to repeat. Hearing that the island had been visited by two men who had killed several of the sea elephants, which he had been at some pains to protect, he at once hastened to the spot to asc.e.?rtain the amount of the damage. On landing on the beach where the killing had been done, he found the place reeking with the decomposed remains of five or six of the animals. He had already remarked to me upon the noticeable scarcity of birds along the shore of the island, as corn- pared with the abundance of water birds elsewhere, but he further stated that as he landed several gulls flew up from the carrion, and with them two or three dark-colored bir?ls, which he described as apparently crosses between an eagle and a turkey buzzard. This-remark, coming from a man ignorant of a caracara, ?vithout prompting from myself, and not dwelt upon by him afte[ward, is at least suggestive of the possible persistence up to the present time of the supppsedly extinct Guadalupe Caracara (Polyborus lutosus).--H. S. Museum of History, Science and Art, Los Angeles, California. Sharp-shinned Hawk Nesting in Arizona.--On May 30, 1907, I collected a set of four eggs of the Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter velox) from a nest in a small fir tree in Miller Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, Arizona, at an altitude of about 6,800 feet. Incubation was beguu. The ferhale sat very close and hung around close by while I collected the egg.-- FRANK C. WILLARD, Tombstone, Arizona. Note on the Ashy Petrel.,--On August 3, 1913, I visited the Painted Cave on Santa., Cruz Island and made a thorough search for the "nests" of the Ashy Petrel (Oceanodroma homochroa). I could find nothing but a few egg shells, which would indicate that the birds either bred earlier, or else did not breed there at all this season.--HowxRu W. Wmca?', Stanford University, California? Three New Birds from Eastern Oregon.--In working over a collection of bird skins from Harney County, Oregon, collected by Mr. Wm. L. Finley during the summer of 1908, I found specimens of the following birds which I believe have never been put on record as occurring in this State. The identifications were made by Mr. Joseph Grinnell and Mr. H. C. Oberholser. Empidonax griseus. Gray Flycatcher. Two adult spec?imens in worn summer plumage taken in the open sagebrush countTy near Wright's Point, about fifteen miles south of Burns, on June 25, 1908. ?n,phispi, a bilineata deserticola. Desert Sparrow. Two adult males taken at Wright's Point on June 24 and 25, 1908. Hylocichla fuscescens salicicola. Willow Thrush. One adult male taken in the willows along Silvie's River near Burns on June 24, 1908:--S?rANL? G. J?;w?'r, Portland, Oregon. Spotted Owls in San Diego County.--On June 22, 1910, while hunting on Palomar Mountain, San Diego County, California, a strange object was seen moving in an oak tree about sixty feet above the ground. On closer observation its identity became more uncer- tain; although I whistled several ?imes it did not move. I finally decided to shoot and was astonished at the downfall of a dried gray-squirrel carcass. The animal had evidently been killed or had died lying crossways on a large limb. Its tail waving in the wind was the fea- ture ?vhich had attracted me. At the same moment of the gnn's explosion a large bird was seen to .flop on the next limb directly above where the squirrel's dried carcass had hung. Not being able to recog- nize the bird I decided to watch, and after a few minutes an owl was seen to cautiously peep over the edge of the limb. It eyed me first ?vith one black eye and then the other. I shot it, and on picking up the specimen was surprised to identify a full-plumaged Spotted Owl ( Strix occidentalis . occidentalis). The folloxving year, 1911, on the same date, June 22, and in the same locality, a party of. t?s had planned to go to a nearby hillside where tiger lilies were known to grow, and, being rather on the lookout for specimens, I took my gun. All of us were busily engaged in dig- ging the bulbs of the lilies, when a sudden "ow-w-w-ow" brought me to my feet, gun in hand, and after cautiously peering in all the surrounding trees a Spotted Owl was seen perched near the top and very close to tbe trunk of a small cedar tree about forty feet high. Not wishing to shoot the bird to pieces my aim was made a little to the side. The shot dropped a wounded bird and while I was occupied in extinguishing its life a clamorous call from a member of the party proclaimed the location of a second owl. I quickly dropped the first bird, grabbed the gun and soon had two owls to my credit. The last one was also perched near the trunk and very close to the top of a small fir tree about 60 feet high. These birds were in moult, one having a single tail feather, and the other none at all; they were a pair and probably had raised a brood early in the spring. Further examination made positive that this }pot had been their roosting place for some time past. The stomachs of these birds were entirely empty, giving no evidence of what their food might have been in this Iocality.--L^?J?:2c?; M. H?J?.Y, San Diego, California.
