Colorado as a winter home. We could always be sure of finding a few of them in certain favored spots, but they were very wary.
Junco hyemalls thurberi. Thurber Junco. Grinnell reported but one of these birds, which was obtained farther up the river, while we saw at least eight, and secured three. Their presence may have been partly due to the low temperature.
Meiospiza lincoini lincoini. Lincoln Sparrow. Grinnell is of the opinion that a large proportion of those birds which his party saw (after February 26), had not spent the entire winter in the region. We, however, found the birds to be common in suitable places throughout our stay, and, since they are never much in evidence, they were probably even more common than was apparent. A specimen taken on the 14th was intermediate in characters between this form and striata.
Pipilo maculatus curtatis. Nevada Towhee. A single male of this form was secured on the 23rd, making this the southernmost station from which it has been reported.
Vermivora celata lutescens. Lutescent Warbler. An individual was shot on the 24th. This would seem to indicate that the subspecies occasionally spends the winter.
Oreoscoptes montanus. Sage Thrasher. A single bird was seen and taken on the 30th.
Toxostoma lecontei lecontei. Lenonte Thrasher. The only bird of this species noted on the trip was one seen from the automobile as we were driving in the vicinity of the sahuaro grove above Potholes, January 30. Although reasonably close, the guns were not handy, and it escaped.
Slaiia mexicana occidentalis. Western Bluebird. Bluebirds were encountered in small numbers. Of the two males secured, one is practically indistinguishable from specimens of bairdi from Arizona, while the other exhibits characters intermediate between that and typical occidentalis. As lots of birds from the Sierra Nevada of California also have the main characters as given for bairdi, we are at a loss just how to place our Fort Yuma specimens. Much work remains to be done with this group.
Covina, California, September 25, 1915.
FROM FIELD AND STUDY
Arizona Hooded Oriole in the Fresno District.—On May 26, 1915, a male Arizona Hooded Oriole (Icterus cucullatus nelsoni) was found among the raisin boxes in a shed on the Borell place, four miles west of Fresno. It was collected by Adrey Borell and the skin, in a somewhat mutilated condition, is now in my collection. During the following week three more males were seen at close range. All were in full plumage and alone.—Winifred N. Wear, Fresno, California.
Nesting of Wild Ducks near San Francisco.—During the spring and early summer I visited Merced Lake a number of times for the purpose of taking a bird census of the region as requested by the Biological Survey. The following species of wild ducks were found to be nesting in the vicinity:
Mallard. On April 22, I flushed a Mallard from her nest. At that time the nest contained seven eggs, but on April 28 it contained ten. After sitting on the eggs about ten days the duck abandoned it though she stayed in the vicinity for a number of days.
Lesser Scaup Duck. A male of this species was seen on nearly every visit to the lake. In July this male, in company with a female and three young not yet old enough to fly, was seen out in the lake. The distance was too far for positive identification of the female, but it seems probable that a pair of this species nested in the vicinity.
Ruddy Duck. These were the most numerous ducks about the lake They probably nested in considerable numbers, though no nests were found. Young of this species were seen in some numbers during July and August and must have been hatched in the vicinity of the lake, as they were not yet able to fly.
On June 5 of this year I visited Stow Lake and the other lakes of Golden Gate Park for the purpose of making an estimate of the number of wild ducks summering there. In all, 169 ducks were counted They were of the following species: Mature Mallards, 66; young Mallards, 70; total Mallards, 136; Ruddy Ducks, 6; Baldpates, 2; Lesser
