Page:Condor20(6).djvu/18

212 THE CONDOR Vol. XX nest of Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena) contained two eggs, one of which had a small hole in it. I blame the cowbird for the damage. This nest was in East San Bernardino. July 4, 1918. Nest of Lazuli Bunting with two bunting eggs and one of the cow- bird. This nest had been under observation for several days. In this same thicket in East San Bernardino a nest of either Lazuli Bunting or Western Lark Sparrow contained two egs of the cowbird. It apparently had been deserted. This nest had been under observation for some days. July 5, 1918. A nest of Traill Flycatcher southwest of Colton contained two eggs of the flycatcher and a cowbird egg partly buried in the lining of nest.--W?LSO.X C. H,t?A, Colton, California, September 16, 1918. First Flights of a Young Golden Eagie.--Miss F. E. Schuman, a student in my biol- ogy classes, in whom I have the greatest confidence, reported to me an observation that was of such interest that I asked her to write the facts down for publication. I offer them to CONDOR readers at face value. "Last summer while my father and I were extracting honey at the apiary about a mile southeast of Thacher School, Ojai, California, we noticed a golden eagle teaching its young one to fly. It was about ten o'clock. The mother started from the nest in the crags and, roughly handling the young one, she allowed him to drop, I should say, about ninety feet, then she would swoop down under him, wings spread, and he would alight on her back. She would soar to the top of the range with him and repeat the process. One time she waited perhaps fifteen minutes between flights. I should say the farthest she let him fall was 150 feet. "My father and I watched this, spellbound, for over an hour. I do not know whether the young one gained confidence by this method or not. A few days later father and I rode to the cliff and out on Overhanging Rock. The eagle's nest was empty."--F. E. Schuman. If not a School of the Woods this would seem at least to be a School of Aviation!-- LOYE MILLER, State Normal School, Los Angeles, California, September 23, 1918. Some Texas Bird Not?s.--The Rio Grande Turkey (Meleagris gaIlopavo interme- gins) was found in small numbers during April, 1918, on several large ranches near Mat- ador, Motley County. This locality must register very nearly the northern limit of its dispersal, for beyond, the region is very unsuited to turkeys, being almost destitute of suitable cover. The few now occurring keep to the oak "motts", and are given more or less protection from vagrant hunters. The ranchmen themselves never kill the hens. During my stay at Rio Hondo, Cameron County, in the month of January, 1918, the Beardless Flycatcher (Camptostoma imberbe) was ascertained to occur in the growth along the Rio Chloral. This particular location is some ten miles nearer the coast than Harlingen, where I found it in 1916. Confirming my previous experience, the character- istic call was the most frequent clue to its presence. Even at that early season the spe- cies was paired, and possibly this holds throughout the year. Later, more than two months were spent along the Rio Grande, within the same county, and often as near as eight miles to the Rio Chloral, but I failed to meet with it again. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers (Muscivoralorlicata) were plentiful in the vicinity of Roaring Spring, Motley County, April 18, 1918. On this date a norther was blowing, and the temperature was below freezing. Many individuals were found seeking shelter low down in the oak "shinnery" so characteristic of the region. Sennett White-tailed Hawk (Tachytriorchis aIbicaudatus sennertl) has suffered a serious reduction in numbers, in the lower Rio Grande region, within the past few years. I am certain that I did not see more than two or three individuals during a visit lasting over three months during 1918. About the only hawk that has maintained itself in nor- mal numbers there 'is the Harris (Parabuteo unicinctus harrisi)--oddly enough the most easily approached of any of the larger raptores of that region. Several characteristic species of the hill country of the state were met with at Men- ard, in the county of the same name, during a visit from April 23 to May 17, 1918. The Texas Jay (ApheIocoma texana) was found, but in scant numbers and was confined to the short draws opening into the valley of the San Saba River. Hereabouts it is only in such situations that juniper grows, a tree very intimately associated with the distribution of that bird. I discovered a nest with young, perhaps a week hatched, on May 1. That form of vireo now designated as ireo belli medius, was fairly common in mixed oak and mesquite brush, mostly about irrigating canals, in the valley; but rarely was it to be found in heavy timber along the San Saba River. First seen May 2. The Black-capped Vireo (Vireo atricapillus) and Rock Sparrow (Aimophila ruliceps eremoe- ca) were inltially recorded on May 7 and 9, respectively. Their late appearance was due probably to the unusual drought, which delayed the-hillside and mesa vegetation, to which both species are so strictly confined during their presence within our borders.--AvsTi.?- PAUL SMITH, Taos, New Mexico, May 28, 1918.