BREWSTER : BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 41 



ence, and did not attempt any resistance. Those which were taken alive were not 

 given an opportunity to use their beaks if they had been so disposed. . . . 



" Eggs were collected for food by the Mexicans dift-ing the latter part of Decem- 

 ber, and owing to repeatedly taking them, some were found February 13, 1888, which 

 were in different degrees of incubation, others were quite fresh. The Mexicans 

 had fresh eggs April 27 wliich they had recently taken. 



" The first young were seen in the middle of February ; they had been hatched 

 sometime earlier, for although some were nearly naked, others had a full covering 

 of snowy down and the dark scapular pin feathers." 



Mr. Grinnell states i that the Man-o'-War Bird is " of not infrequent occur- 

 rence " along the coast of Los Angeles county, California, in winter, and Mr. 

 T. S. Palmer has recorded 2 the capture of a female at Humboldt Bay ou 

 October 5, 1888. 



Merganser serrator (Linn.). 

 Red-breasted Merganser. 



Mergus serrator Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., VI. 1883, 352 (La Paz). 



The Red-breasted Merganser is " common at La Paz in winter " according 

 to Mr. Belding, who seems to have been the first and, indeed, thus far the 

 only observer who has met with it in the Cape Region. Mr. Bryant appar- 

 ently overlooked the record just quoted, but says^ that he himself found the 

 birds "tolerably common during March," and also saw some in April in the 

 long estero north of Magdalena Bay, adding that " Mr. Belding tells me that 

 he saw a number in San Quintin Bay in May, 1881, and shot one specimen." 

 Further northward, in California, this Merganser is a regular and very common 

 winter bird. There is, I believe, no record of its occurrence south of Lower 

 California. 



Lophodytes cucullatus (Linn.). 



Hooded Merganser. 



Lophodytes cucullatus Ridgwat, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., V. 1883, 534, footnote (San 

 Jose del Cabo). Belding, Ibid., VL 1883, 352 (s. of lat. 24° .30'). Bryant, 

 Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., IL 1889, 265 (San Jose' del Cabo; La Paz). 



The Hooded Merganser is said by Mr. Ridgway to have been taken at San 

 Jose del Cabo by Mr. Xantu.s, in February, and it is given as " rare " south of 

 latitude 24*' 30' by Mr. Belding. Mr. Frazar did not meet with it, and Mr. 

 Bryant gives no record for the central or upper portions of the Peninsula, al- 



1 Pub. IL Pasadena Acad. Sci., 1898, 10. 



2 Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., IL 1889, 88. 

 8 Ibid., 265. 



