Page:Condor17(5).djvu/36

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206 THE (?ONDOR Vol. XVll It may seem a trivial matter to make a correction of range involving a matter of only fifteen miles, in a species as w?de ranging as the Western Gull, but the point is that the bird is evidently strictly a maritime and littoral species, seldom or never wan- dering far from the sea. As my own published statement seems to be the only definite one ascribing the bird to an inland point in southern California, and as I have for years been satisfied of its inaccuracy, it seems advisable that a correction be made. Common Tern. Willerr (Pacific Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 16) has recorded the Attic Tern (Igterna paradisaea) from Los Angeles County on the basis of three spe- cimens collected by Mr. F. S. Daggett (see Cocoon, v, 1903, p. 17) and one by myself. Having recent occasion to refer to my specimen I found that it was the Common Tern (Igterna hitundo), and labelled as such. Just how the mistake arose, I do not know. Discovery of this mistake induced me to examine Mr. Daggett's three specimens, and these, too, are unmistakably Igterna hirunc?o. This removes a species from our southern California lisr? for there is no other rec- ord of 8. paradisaea for this region. With little doubt, however, it does occur, at least 'occasionally, along our seacoast.--H. S. SWXRTH, Museum o! History, Igcience and Art, Los Angeles, California. Bluebird Nestin9 in Low Country.--Dr. L. H. Miller's note in the last CosvoR anent the breeding of the Western Bluebird (?ialia mexicana occidentalis) reminds me of two similar instances that I noted this spring. On April 25 I found an uncompleted nest in a white oak near Arcadia, containing two fresh eggs. On May 13 a pair had a nest with three eggs in a willow tree at the entrance to Griffith Park near the Los Angeles River. I have often noted the birds in this vicinity during the breeding season. This species seems much more common lately near the city of Los Angeles than in former years.--D. I. SHEPXSDSOS, LOS Angeles, California. California Pine Grosbeak in Mono County, and Other Notes.--While descending a small branch valley of Mammoth Pass, southern Mono County, California, July 31, 1914, I flushed a pair of California Pine Grosbeaks (Pinicola enucleator californica) that was feeding on the ground beside a stream at an altitude of about 9500 feet. The brightly colored male flew into a pine tree, where I shot him, but the female disappeared far up the mountain side. On August 5, while armed only with a light fly-rod, I spent five minutes watching another male that was feeding on the tender tips of a small spruce near me, at, I should say, an elevation of 9000 feet. As far as I am aware, this sub- species has never before been taken so far south. While passing the dairy corral of a neighbor near Covina, Los Angeles County, April 29, 1915, a male Dwarf Cowbird (Molothrus ater obscurus) flew up on the fence within fifteen feet of me and remained several minutes before returning to the ground farther away. By the time I had fetched my gun, he had disappeared. My chance for observing him was too good for there to have been a mistake in identity. I placed two bales of hay in the shade of a large orange tree six weeks ago. Upon removing .these June 18 I found that a pair of Valley Quail (Lophortyx californica valli- cola) had taken possession of them. The bales were one on top of the other and merely in the shade of the tree without any dense protection of surrounding growth such as these birds usually demand, but there was a deep hollow formed in the straw of the top bale some four feet above the ground, and in this were three fresh eggs. The White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus) is now so rare in our southland that it seems advisable to record one which I saw June 2, 1914, some two miles from E1 Monte, Los Angeles County. I was hunting in a grassy marsh all day and came quite close to the_bird several times, once as near as a hundred yards. I hunted diligently for a nest or young, but I believe it likely that this was merely a lone individual. About a week later A. van Rossera visited this spot and noted what was undoubtedly the same bird.-- A. BRxzXER HOWELL, Covina, California. A New Bird for the Pacific Slope of Southern California.--Recently there came into my possession a Great Horned Owl that seemed much lighter in coloration than the horned owls I had seen from this locality. The bird was found dead at the mouth of San An- tonio Canyon, Los Angeles County, elevation about 2000 feet, on January 10, 1915, by a Mr. Forbes of this place. The bird was sent to Mr. Grinnell for his opinion as to its