5 ye 
SB 2L0LOGICAL FOURNAT. 
Vor. II. | JULY, 1891. No. 2. 
NOTICES OF SOME CALIFORNIA BIRDS. 
BY L. BELDING. 
I believe the first specimen of the blue-winged teal ( Anas discors ) 
that was taken in California was a male in spring plumage that I 
found in the Stockton market late in February or early in March, 
1881. This was forwarded to Prof. Ridgway for identification, and 
was mounted and exhibited in the Smithsonian Institution. 
In April following, Mr. J.C. Parker, of San Diego, showed me 
another fine adult male which he said had been recently shot by a 
Mr. Hill in Cajon Valley, about fifteen miles from San Diego. The 
San Diego specimen was as much of a puzzle to the sportsmen of 
San Diego as my specimen had been to me. I had probably never 
seen the male in breeding plumage until I saw the Stockton speci- 
men, but having shot a great many of these ducks in the fall in the 
Mississippi Valley, I supposed I was well acquainted with the blue- 
winged teal, and for that reason did not compare my bird with the 
description of the species. Had I done so its identification would 
have been easy. 
___ Mr. F. Stephens secured a pair at Agua Caliente, San Diego 
_ County, in March, 1886. These are all the California records that 
I know of, although Dr. Newberry, in Vol. 6, Pacific R. R. Rep., 
says it is common throughout California and Oregon—referring es- 
pecially to the central and northern part of California—but he must 
_ have intended to say this of the cinnamon teal (A. cyanoptera). 
Another of the very few species which I have collected and failed 
to identify was the harlequin duck ( Histrionicus histrionicus )—a 
__ boreal species hitherto supposed to only winter in the State, which I 
_ first discovered in the Sierra of California in the summer of 1879, 
_ and probably the first specimen that was collected in ‘California was a 
_half-grown juvenile I shot in the Stanislaus River in 1880, and sent 
