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124 THE CONDOR Vol. XXI In June, 1891, I heard the song of a Wilson Snipe at dusk over a marsh in Owens Valley. I have no doubt but that this species bred there. The Long-billed Dowitchers have been common around the bays all winter. I saw several about the first of February.--FaA?r? STEPHENS, ?an ?Digo, California, February 12, 1919. ? .. ' '[ i A Supposed California-taken Trumpeter Swam--Reference is made in the "Game Birds of California" (page 254) to' a juvenile Trumpeter Swan from California in the British Museum, recorded by Count Salvadori in the "Catalogue of Birds" (vol xxvxL p. 35). I examined this bird in November, 1908, at a time when the variations of size and points of difference between the W?istling and Trumpeter swans were fresh in my mind. Some four years before this date Mr. P. A. Taremet and I had begun a study of the swans. We had accumulated a large series of measurements, and Mr. Taverner had made many drawings to scale of the heads. This material was before me when I studied the series of swans in the British Museum. The bird itself is given in the "Catalogue of Birds" as "c. Juv. sk. California. J. Richards, Esq. '[P.]."; and the number on the label is "57.10.9.2", indicating that the skin was registered on October 9, 1857. V/ho the donor, "J. Richards", was I have been unable to find out; no reference is made to him by Dr. Sharpe in his published account of the bird collection. The neck of the swan contains a newspaper dated San Francisco, December 8, 1856, so there is little doubt the bird is correctly assigned to California. The feathers of the head are gray, as are those of the back and flanks, the primaries and taft feathers; the axillars are whitish gray, the beak black with a faintly indicated spot that is reddish in the dried skin, but would be flesh color in life. The culmen is V-shaped, and the age of the bird is under a year; fixing the age is comparatively easy, but deciding as to the identity of the species is another matter. A juvenile male swan taken on Lake St. Clair, on the Michigan side, March 27, 1908, and known as no. 61 in the series of measurements prepared by Mr. Taverner and myself, was found to match very closely the California bird in color, outline of beak, and age; the fleshcolored spot in front of the eye of no. 61 is surrounded by feathers, while in the California bird the feather line has receded sufficiently to leave the spot exposed. Fortunately the sternum with the trachea and bronchial tubes of no. 61 have been pre- served and would alone identify it as a Whistling Swan; so there is little doubt that the California bird too, is of this species. Both birds belong to the straight-beaked type that approaches closely in the shape o.f the beak to the Trumpeter Swan and is often difficult to place without the sternum. Swans of the two species overlap in measurements in their first year..To illustrate this I give the measurements of three swans all under a year old, two the birds already discussed, the other a Trumpeter Swan taken at Leg Lake, Lincoln County, Washington, November 24, 1906. '? o? British Museum California juv. 57.10.9.2 St. Clair Flats, Series 61 Michigan, ? juv. 'March 27, 1908 Coll. J.H.F. Leg Lake, Lincoln No. 12407 County, Washington, juv. November 24, 1906 --J. H. Fnr?i?, Toronto, Ontario, 4.8 2.78 2.02 3.1 1.37 1.75 (56.?) 21.5 5.1 20 4.62 2.5 2.12 3.2 1.1 1.75 50.75 20.4 6.5 20 4.9 2.8 2.1 3.5 1.3 1?85 -- 20.25.3 20 Canada, MarcI? 15, 1919. Cygnus Cygnus columbianus Cygnus buccinalor