I34 THE CONDOR VoL. VI in every case he had found the wounds neatly dressed with down plucked from the feathers, and arranged evidently by the long bill of'the bird. In some in- stances a solid plaster was thus formed, and in others "bandges" had been applied to wounds or broken limbs. One bird shot had been severely wounded at some recent period, and had been protected by a sort of net work of feathers taken from the bird's own body, so arranged as to completely cover the wound. The feathers were fairJy netted together, passing alternately under and above each other, form- ing about the broken limb a textile fabric of strong binding power. Might it not be more reasonable to conclude, in the ease of the swallow, that the young bird had entangled itself with some horse hairs that were used in the nest and had broken its leg, while the Cleveland citizen happened too bserve the bird's condition and regarded it as a piece of wonderful animal intelligence? A case similar to that of the wounded woodcock has come under my personal obser- vation. This bird was a female valley partridge (LophorO,x californicus). As I was conling down a ridge one November day ot x9ox this quail fluttered along al- most under the horse's feet, and then escaped into the tall, dry weeds where I captured her. She had been in some way hurt above and below the knee, from .?.?z. =...??...?..?_i ?? e itherashot or a trap. The bird, on getting .?-_- ? _. I away into the thick brush naturally drew her '*?-? ' wounded leg up under the flank feathers. The ?'-?'??'?J oozing blood would canse the soft downy parts of the feathers to adhere and dry onto it. Then as the bird felt the need of food or was obliged to move, she would lower the leg to use it, when off would come a few feathers adhering to the wound. This would also cause some parts of the wound to bleed afresh, and more soft down with bits of fine dry grass and dirt would be added as the bird crouched down, forming a reg- ular cast or bandage. This seems to be the explanation of many cases of natural surgery, and was certainly what happened to the quail. I recall also the case of a male Brewer blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) taken one winter. The leg had been broken midway above the knee and the ends of the bones had slipped by each other and healed, the muscles holding them in place. Another specimen had no toes on one leg, there being a stump. This brings me back to the bone picked up on the beach. A cut is here given showing the overlap, between the two dotted lines, where the healing has taken place. The bone had been broken in some manner, had turned half way around, slipped together about an inch, where by some means or other it had been kept until it had grown together. On the lower side the splintered bone may be seen in wedge-shaped form. The humerus is three inches long as healed and some four inches long in its natural condition. 15raywards, Cahfornia. A List of Summer Birds of the Piute Mountains, California BY C. H. RICIIARD?qON, JR. URING the summer of x9o 3, I spent a month's vacation in the Piute Mts. These mountains consist of a single range, lying between the Tehachapi Hills and the Sierra Nevada mountains. My headquarters was a small cabin about six miles northwest of the Piute post-office. The hills which surround
