we found them dead the next morning. The male was about with food, but there were no young to be fed. He stayed about most of the day, but I did not see the mother again. From all appearances, she was a deliberate deserter. Can it be that some birds are as unbirdlike as some people are inhuman?—William L. Finley, Portland, Oregon.
Puffinus creatopus iu Alameda County, California.—On July 7, 1906, I was driving along the main road, home from a trip to the Santa Clara Valley, when, about three miles from Irvington and sixteen miles from Haywards, at the side of the road I saw what at first glance appeared to be a gull. It was lying directly under the telegraph wires, a strange place, I thought, for a gull to be seen at this time of the summer and still more, so far from the bay shore, at least six miles off. I was about to pass on, when the idea struck me that I had better identify the species. On picking up the bird, my surprise was complete, as I recognized it to be an ocean straggler, a shearwater instead of a gull.
On arriving home and skinning the bird, I found it very poor, an adult male in moulting condition. The only way I could account for this shearwater (Puffinus creatopus) straying so far from its natural surroundings, is that we had been having, for a week preceding, unusually thick fogs that had extended from the ocean inland for sixty miles or more. No fogs for many years had been so heavy and lasting all thru the day. This shearwater must have lost its bearings in the fogs along the ocean coast, which about opposite would be in the neighborhood of Pigeon Point or Pescadero Beach, some fifty miles or more in a bee-line from where the bird lay. It must have passed over the Coast Range into the Bay region, wandered about until it came down lower to sight the land, and struck against the mass of telegraph wires and was killed by the contact. On skinning the bird, I found a line or dent across the front of the skull.
That oceanic birds often get lost in the fogs, if they have not the coast line to go by, is thought to be a fact from recent investigation by Mr. L. M. Loomis on Monterey Bay. (See Calif. Water Birds No. IV, page 308.)—W. Otto Emerson, Haywards, California.
Another Record of the Alaska Water-thrush in California.—On the 29th of September 1906, I secured a female specimen of Seiurus noveboracensis notabilis near National City, San Diego County, California. A pair of this species were feeding, with several song sparrows, along the slimy mud exposed by low water in a fresh-water pond about one mile from San Diego Bay. They were not at all shy and allowed me to approach within easy "auxilliary" range. This was at 7 a. m., and the stomach of the bird secured was filled with what looked like tiny seeds.—C. B. Linton, Long Beach, California.
Two New Winter Records from Tacoma, Washington.—Our little back yard here in the city boasts of three small trees, namely, a cedar, a horse-chestnut and a mountain ash. Nevertheless, during the winter months my system of a daily food supply of crumbs, seeds, etc., is always productive of a large mixed flock of English sparrows, rusty song sparrows, and Shufeldt and Oregon juncos. These in turn often attract rarer visitors, such as western evening grosbeaks and Sitka kinglets.
During the past December I was much pleased to have my regular flock decoy in a new winter record in the shape of a number of Townsend warblers (Dendroica townsendi). This is the first time that I have positively identified these birds in winter, altho during past years I have several times felt personally sure of their presence between the months of December and March. The December records for 1906 occurred on the 4th, 13th, 15th, 21st and 29th, three being seen on the 15th.
The second new record is that of the Anthony vireo (Vireo huttoni obscurus). These birds have several times been reported to me in winter. Mr. W. Leon Dawson, of Seattle, tells me he heard it once in winter near his city. They are also reported as being heard in winter on Vancouver Island. From Oregon, Mr. A. W. Anthony, of Portland, writes me that they winter near there along the Columbia River. I, myself, have several times felt positive of having both seen and heard the species around Tacoma in winter, but a vireo amid snow and ice was contrary to my Massachusetts upbringing, so I have never made any official records of it. Indeed, in their small size, color, and actions they so closely resemble the Sitka kinglet (Regulus calendula grinnelli) that a field-glass identification made in our dense fire woods might not be accepted as conclusive unless a more positive record had been made. It afforded me considerable satisfaction, therefore, to personally collect two specimens, a male on November 17, 1906, and a female on January 26, of the present year; this, too, in spite of ten consecutive days when the thermometer registered from 10° to 28° above zero. In both cases the vireos were travelling with a large flock of perhaps a hundred western golden-crowned kinglets and chestnut-backed chickadees. The cold weather apparently had not bothered them in the least, as both were very fat and in excellent condition.—J. H. Bowles, Tacoma, Washington.
