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12 TH]? CONDOR Vol. XVII cent examples: the writer saw detached pairs of Black Swifts in Kearsarge Pass at an altitude of about 9000 feet, on the 5th day of July, 1913; and a com- pany of forty birds very much at home in the basin of the Little Yosemite River below Nevada Falls, on the 16th of June, 1914. Indeed it is probably only because this stretch of coast above Santa Cruz offers essentially the con- ditions of cold and moisture found elsewhere only at higher altitudes that the birds have descended to this station. Moreover, the birds, although regularly breeding, are very scarce at Santa Cruz. Mr. Vrooman has never seen the large flocks which are commonplaces to experienced mountain stu- dents. Ten or a dozen birds at most are as many as he ever saw at once, and these probably represented the en- tire population of Santa Cruz County. Otherwise he has never secured tangible evidence of the nesting of above three pairs in one sea- son. Fig. 8. EGGS OF BLACK SWIFT (THE LARGER) AND The egg taken on June WItITE-TItROATEG SWIFT; BOWIt NATIv'RAn SIZE 22nd measures 1.18x.73 inches, and is the eleventh of this Santa Cruz series. Nos. I to 7 inclusive were secured by Mr. John E. Thayer. The only other perfect egg extant is in the possession of Mr. H. F. Bailey, a close personal friend of Mr. Vrooman; while the discoverer himself retains two broken specimens. To A. G. Vrooman of Santa Cruz belongs the exclusive and distinguished honor of bringing this rare egg to box; and my hat, for one, is off to him for a pretty piece of work. Santa Barbara, Califora?a, J?dy 5, 1914. TIlE KERN REDW1NG--AGELAIUS PHOENICEUS ACICULATUS By JOSEPH MAILLIARD ?VITH SIX DRAWINGS OMETIlING over a year ago the sight of a couple of specimens of red- wings from east-central Kern County, California, created in my mind the desire to obtain sufficient material from that locality to compare crit- ically with other forms of Agelail?s. Finally, last spring, unable to go myself, Mr. Adriaan van Rossem was commissioned to do the necessary field work,