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May, 1918 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 123 Probably a number of individuals of this species have been shot at various times in the years gone by, but there are very few labelled specimens in museums or collectors' hands from this state. Most of those shot have been mistaken, as was the one taken by Mr. Pond, for a cross between an American Widgeon (Baldpate) and a Pintail or a Cin- namon T?al. The back of the male bird is a good deal like that of a Pintail, while the red of the head and neck resembles that of a Cinnamon Teal, with the rest of the bird closely approaching the American Widgeon, so that the idea of some such cross is nat- urally suggested to the mind of any one unfamiliar with the European Widgeon.-- JosEr? MA?,L?AUD, San Francisco, February 9, 1918. Anther Reference to Early Experiments in Keeping Hummingbirds in Captivity. --In THE Co?Do? for September, 1917, p. 168, ! called attention to the experiments made by Adolphe Boucard in San Francisco in 1852 in keeping hummingbirds in captivity. Boucard remained in San Francisco from August 16, 1851, to August 18, 1852, and then returned to France via Nicaragua and New York. He states that he collected many spe- cimens of Selasphorus rulus and Calypte anna, that at one time he had as many as sixty of them alive, and that some of them lived four months. With these facts in mind it is interesting to compare the following statement by Bonaparte in his "Notes sur ]es collections rapport,es en 1853, par M. A. Delattre, de son voyage en Californfe et dans le Nicaragua". "M. Delattre has brought back from California, with their nests. their eggs, and their young, two Hummingbirds, Selosphorus tuber Edw. [?S. rufus] and S. anna Les- son. By force of care he was able to keep in caees for seven or eight months a very large number of these delightful little beings which he had raised himself and ou the habits of which he was able to make interesting observations which we shall not undertake to pub- lish." (Cornpies Rendus, xxxw?, April 3, 1854, p. 660.) From other sources we learn that De]attre ? ]eft France in January, 1851, on a sail- ing vessel bound for California and that he reached San Francisco six months later (probably in August), af(er rounding Cape Horn. He returned via Nicaragua aud reached home in the early part of 1853, and since he collected hummingbirds' nests, and eggs, he must have secured them in the spring of 1852, as he arrived in .California after the sea- son of 1851, and evidently ]eft before tha nesting season of 1853 in order to stop in Nica- ragua and still reach Paris in the first half of that year. It is very probable that the statements of Boucard and BonaParte refer to the same or at least to simultaneous experiments. It is very unlikely that two French or- nitho]ogists should both conduct'experiments in raising the same species of hummiug- birds in San Francisco in 1852 and not know of each other's work. Boucard apparently does not mention Delattre, and the latter who never wrote very much, died shortly after his return, three months before Bonaparte's statement was published. When it is re- called that l?oucard and Delattre both reached San Francisco by sailing vessel in Aug- ust, 1851, and returned v4a the Nicaragua route in 1852, that Boucard was only a boy of 12 when he sailed and consequently ratber young to undertake extended collections on his own initiative, while Delattre was an experienced collector 46 years of age, it seems more than likely that they were traveling together. In fact it is highly probable that on this, his first trip, Boucard was working under the direction of Delattre from whom pos- sibly he acquired some of that interest in hummingbirds which became so marked in later years. If this surmise is correct it may throw some light on the region where De- lattre collected in California. Boucard intimates that most of the year was spent in the neighborhood of San Francisco. That so experienced a collector of hummingbirds as De- lattre secured nothing except Selasphorus rulus and Calypte anna indicates that he did not work in the mountains or in southern California, and the birds actually brought back could all have been obtained in the immediate vicinity of San Francisco or Monterey. Among other specimens' collected was the type of Passerculus alaudinus. Under these circumstances it is perhaps reasonable to fix the type locality of this latter species as the vicinity of San Francisco Bay. Certainly the entire list of California birds obtained by Delattre should be re-examined critically in the hope of obtaining further light on the ?Pierre Adolphe I)elattre, often mentioned simply as "A. I)elattre", was born In Tours, France, February 12, 1805, and died at Nice, France, January 3 1854, at the age of 49. He was an energetic explorer and traveling naturalist who devoted special attention to collecting hummingbirds. Between 1831 and 1851 he made several expeditions to An?- erica.