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FROM FIELD AND STUDY The Costa Collection of Bi?ds.--In The Condor for May, 1918, pages i14-116, Dr. T. S. Palmer has carefully reviewed the early history of Catypte costae, and ends with the phrase, "The Costa collection of hummingbirds, the fate of which is now unknown." Adolphe Boucard in his "Genera of Humming Birds," London, 1893-1895, under Calyptc Costae, page 5, states: "This fine species was dedicated to Marquis Costa de Beaure- gard, who was a very enthusiast[i?] collector, and had in'his time one of the finest col- lection[s] of Humming Birds. . I bought his collection in 1878, and I found among many rare species, what I consider as the types, male and female of this species." Boucard, who was one of the ablest of French ornithologists and the last of the great natural history agents who made Paris their headquarters in the nineteenth cen- tury, move(l to London I think in 1889, where I frequently saw him in the years 1889- 1891, at his natural history agency in High Holborn. He made two notable donations of the greater part of his ornithological collection to the Paris Museum, the first I think in 1895, and the last in 1904, a few months before his death. It is probable the supposed types of Cal?pte costae were in the first donation, as Boucard had then finished his "Genera of Humming Birds." In the Atlas, "Voyage de la Frigate la V?nus," Bourcier's types are figured (Oiseaux, pl. 2, figs. 1, 2), in colors from a painting of the male and female by Oudart.-- J. H. FLEMING, Toronto, Ontario, October 25, 1918. The Wilson Phalarope in the San Diegan Region.--An adult male of the Wilson Phalarope (Steganopus tricolor) was taken at Nigger Slough on September 16, this year (1918). The species has been recorded from Santa Barbara at sea level, otherwise its occurrence in the low country of the San Diegan region is quite worthy of note. The bird was alone, though Northern Phalaropes came and went from time to time. The plumage is the quiet gray of winter with some persisting wing quills that were worn. The testes were well defined but shrinking in size. This completes the ,roster of the American phalaropes that I have taken this September in the low country of this region. --LOYE MILLER, State Normal School', Los Angeles, Cali /ornia, September 23, 1918. Nesting of the Western Wiilet in California.--In a recent conversation the Editor of THF CONDOR called my attention to the fact that there is only one definite record of the breeding of the Western Willet (Cato?tro?horus semipalmatus inornatus) within the state of California. This is based upon sets of eggs collected by N. R. Christie, near Beckwith, Plumas County, many years ago. It, therefore, seems well worth while to record the taking of additional eggs of this bird within the state. During June and July, 1918, Dr. Barton W. Evermann, Mr. Joseph R. Slevin and myself made a long collecting trip by automobile, covering some t?00 miles, through northern California and southern Oregon. In early June we spent several days at a par- tially flooded mountain meadow known as Grasshopper Meadow or Grasshopper Lake. This is situated in Lassen County about five miles from Eagle Lake. Grasshopper Lake is very 'shallow. The relative proportion of lake and meadow varies much from time to time, according as the season is one of more or less moisture. Together they cover many hundred acres. At (he time of our visit the immediate shores of the lake were wide mud flats with a scattering, sprawling growth of a thick-stemmed, ragged, more or less vine-like "red-weed". Farther from the lake were meadows of sedges and grasses and a wide belt of yellow primroses, and then rolling hills covered with sage-brush. As we reached the mud flats a number of large birds with very conspicuous white wing-patches rose in the air and, with loud cries, came driving toward us, passed, wheeled and came again and again, in very much the manner of an Avocet. There seemed to be no reason to doubt that they were the Western Willet, but, to make identification cer- tain, one was shot. There seemed to be about six or eight or perhaps ten pairs here, and later we saw four or five more pairs in another part of the meadow several miles away. We succeeded in finding five nests. On June'1 Dr. Evermann found two nests, with one and two fresh eggs, and on June 6 I found three nests, one empty, one with four broken
