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Sept., 1918 187 FRO1q FIELD AND STUDY SeCond Occurrence of Wilson Plover in Californla.--While strolling on the ocean shore at Imperial Beach, San Diego, County, California, May 11, 1918, examining with the 'aid of glasses various waders, I discovered a Wilson Plover (Ochthodromus wilsonius wil- sonius) and three Snowy Plovers engaged in feeding along the wave-swept beach. They all took flight, circled around over the breakers and settled on the wet sand at the edge of the water. The Wilson Plover permitted me to approach to within some fifty feet, then running rapidly would catch up with its more timid companions which had earlier moved out of possible danger. Similar acts were repeated a number of times; it then took the lead, uttered a few notes and flew in the direction of the original feeding place. On disappearing from sight, ! retraced my steps nearly a quarter of a mile, and there, not a hundred feet from where they first flew, on a dry portion of the beach, the Wilson was seen standing 'on the sand-drift. Its associates were close by. Two of them claimed own- ership to a set of three eggs; the other appeared greatly disturbed when I examined a shell-lined hollow in the sand. Suspecting that the Wilson might have a brooding mate, I withdrew to watch from a distance, but as I did so, the bird gradually approached near- er. When I stopped, it would also stop and remain motionl.ess. If I advanced too near, it would retreat, keeping the distance between us at all times the same or about so. This peculiar action was too trying for me, so I decided to give up temporarily the hunt for its nest. On June 16, I searched the beach carefully without seeing a bird of this species. All further attempts to locate this Wilson Plover were frustrated by the U.S. Govern- ment; for on my next visit to this locality, the beach and the road leading to it were pla- carded with large wooden signs, reading "Danger: U.S. Aerial Gunnery Range." So far as I can learn, this is the only Wilson Plover seen in the state since the spe- cies was added to the list of the birds of California through the record of a male taken by myself at Pacific Beach, June 29, 1894 (Nidiologist, It, May, 1895, p. ?7).--A. M. SOl. L, San Diego, California, August 4, 1918. Heermann Gull With White Primary Coverts.--Mr. Willett's note regarding the occurrence of white primary coverts in Larus heermanni (ConDOR,' XX, May, 1918, p. 122), su'gests the advisability of recording a similar specimen in the Museum of the Geolog- ical Survey of Canada. This bird is a female in worn changing plumage, probably just coming into maturity, taken.August 14, 1917, at Alert Bay, B.C., off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. Four outer primary' coverts on one wing and two on the other are pure white. The dissimilarity is probably due to molt. Of a hundred or more gulls of this species observed at the same time and during several successive days this was the only one noted that showed these conspicuous white wrists in flight, and it was collected on that account. It is difficult to offer a satisfactory explanation to this sporadically (?) recurring variation.--P. A. TAWm?ER, Museum (leological Survey, Ottawa, Ontario, August 10, 1918. Pacific Coast Records of the European.Wldgeon.--Fifty years ago Dr. J. G. Cooper Published the first note on the presence of the European Widgeon (Mareca penelope) on the Pacific Coast. Since then, reports of the capture of this species have appeared from time to time, the most recent being that of Mailliard in THE CosDo? for last May, relative to specimens secured in 1908 and 1917. The records of the occurrence of the European Widgeon in America now number more than a hundred, of which nearly twenty percent are based on specimens taken on the Pacific Coast. The Alaska and British Columbia records have been published several times and need not be repeated here. The Wash- ington records are all recent and are due to the energy of Bowles and Warburton who have reported one record for each winter since 1915. So far as I am aware Oregon is not yet represented by any notes on this species. The California list includes at least eleven records, representing a dozen or more specimens and is exceeded only by that of North Carolina. Most of the California ?ecords are mentioned in Grinnell, Br.v. ant and Storer's "Game Birds of California" (in press), but the data of the California and Washington