condition-that the plumage has lost its color values. A few fresh new feathers, however, show among the primary wing coverts and on the alula; and' so far as these go they indicate a coloration of adult annual plumage just like that of the first annual. In an examination of hundreds of specimens of Hermit Thrushes from throughout the United States elsewhere than from the White Mountains, the writer has been unable to find one referable to the race polionota. It would seem that this subspecies, like some other migratory birds of the high mountains of the southwest, goes south in the fall to, and'back again in the spring from, some far southern winter home without touching the lowlands within hundreds of miles of its restricted summer habitat. The entire series of fourteen White Mountains Hermit Thrushes was se- cured through the energetic efforts of Mr. Halsted G. White, field assistant
during the summer of 1917.
LIST AND MEASUREMENTS (IN MILLIMETERS) OF SPECIMENS OF HYLOCIC?HLA (?UTTATA POLIONOTA COLLECTED IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS, MONO AND INYO COUNTIES, CALIFORNIA, IN 1917. No. Sex Date Wing Tail Exposed Tarsus culrnen 28838 ? jv. July 31 96.6 71.2 12.9 28.8 28840 ? jv. July 31 99.5 73.0 12.2 29.1 28842 ? iv. Aug. 1 95.3 72.0 11.7 29,8 28843 ? iv. Aug. i 101.6 76.8 30.1 28844 ? ad. ' Aug. 3 97.5 73.0 14.3 31.2 28845 ? ad. ' Aug. 3 99.2 77.3 13.3 28.8 28846 ? jv. Aug. 3 98.6 74.6 13.1 30.5 28847 ? jv. Aug. 3 101.3 77.3 12.9 30.7 28848 ? ira? Aug. 18 96.9 73.0 12.4 29.7 28849 ? ira. Aug. 18 97.5 69.7 12.1 28.8 28850 ? ira. Aug. 18 98.2 72.8 12.4 30.4 28851 ? ira. Aug. 18 101.1 74.7 12.1 30.3 28839 9 jv. July 31 92.6 67.0 28.9 28841 9 jv. Aug. I 96.5 71.5 11.7 29.7 ?Badly worn. -ype. Berkeley, California, December z7, 1917. FROM FIELD AND STUDY Observations in a Swallow Colon.--The sea-wall a few miles from Oceanside in San Diego County rises abruptly from a very narrow beach and varies in height from twenty-five to one hundred feet. The materials forming this bluff are in horizontal lay- ers, of clay, cobble-stone, sandstone, and shells, interspersed in a few places with solid masses of very hard rock. In one of the sandstone strata a colony of Bank Swallows (Riparia riparia) have established their "cliff dwellings". Rising sharply from the beach, this layer of compact sand is nowhere over fifteen feet in thickness, while topping it is a stratum of cobble- stone and clay. That this cliff has been the home of many generations of swallows is very certain, as there are hundreds of abandoned tunnels and nests. Each year as the face of the wall is eroded and crumbles away the tiny tunnels are excavated a few inches deeper, and the new nest built at the very end. No tunnels were found to exceed three feet in depth while the most of those exam- ined were just the length of one's arm. In nearly every case it was an old tunnel that was being used, and as many as four or five old nests could be found buried along the passage. Building material used was a fine dark brown, grassy sea-weed, gathered from
