The Season 



171 



non-Flycatcher species, but it never before 

 came to my notice with the Bohemian 

 Waxwing. This species was last seen here 

 on March n, when there occurred a slight 

 snowfall, but not enough of a storm to 

 dampen the ardor, in any way, of many 

 singing Robins. A heavier snowstorm, with 

 low temperatures on April 10 and 1 1, drove 

 a number of species well into the heart of 

 the city. A Tree Sparrow was caught in 

 my Sparrow trap on the first day of the 

 storm, banded, and liberated. It returned 

 to the trap again the next day, was again 

 given its freedom, and has not been seen 

 since. 



There seems to me evidence arising in 

 the immediate vicinity of Denver of the 

 beneficial effects of the Federal Migratory 

 Act; more Ducks have been seen latterly 

 by the writer on small lakes in this neigh- 

 borhood than in many years past. On 

 April 9, a warm, cloudless day, the follow- 

 ing species were noticed in a small lake 

 immediately south of Denver- Redheads, 

 Canvasbacks, Mallards, Pintails, Lesser 

 Scaups, Shovellers, and Green-winged 

 Teal, a similar assemblage not having come 

 under my notice in a long time. On the 

 same day, a nest with four eggs of the 

 Long-eared Owl was found close to the 

 city limits, a date fairly early for this Owl 

 to nest. On the same afternoon, a large 

 flock of Cassin's Purple Finches was seen. 

 The writer was then impressed anew by 

 the ease with which one can mistake this , 

 species for the House Finch, if one judge 

 by appearances alone, while no one could 

 make a mistake in identifying the two 

 species if their songs be compared. The 

 song of the Cassin's Finch is quite unlike 

 that of the House Finch. The date on 

 which this flock of Cassin's Finch was 

 seen, is, in my experience, exceptionally 

 late for this species for this vicinity. Say's 

 Phoebe was first seen on the afternoon of 

 April 9. The next and the following two 

 days were cold and snowy, a combination 

 which seems to cast doubt on birds showing 

 foreknowledge of bad weather and storms. 



Mrs. L. K. Robinson tells me that she 

 saw a very large flock of Evening Gros- 

 beaks in one of our parks, the date being 



February 18; all had disappeared on the 

 next day except six, and these left that 

 afternoon. The writer did not have the 

 pleasure of watching this flock of beautiful 

 birds. One of my friends who has a ranch 

 a few miles south of Denver, reports that 

 a Bald Eagle has lingered about his place 

 for several weeks. This bird is a rare visitor 

 anywhere in Colorado. The Junco group 

 is a very puzzling one in field identification , 

 and the writer highly recommends Spar- 

 row-traps as offering a great help in their 

 identification. On April 1, two species and 

 a subspecies were found in the Sparrow- 

 trap, that is to say, the Pink-sided, the 

 Montana, and the Shufeldt's Juncos. They 

 were all promptly banded and given their 

 freedom. Certainly there is no way known 

 to the writer which gives one such a satis- 

 factory chance to study a live bird as does 

 this, and the pleasure is enhanced by the 

 knowledge that the delicate little creature 

 is done no harm. 



The writer is greatly interested in the 

 oft-seen pair of Clark's Crows which have 

 been mentioned in previous reports. He is 

 wondering when this pair will 'pull out for 

 the hills' because the pair was seen in 

 Denver as late as March 25. On this latter 

 date the two birds were blacker than ever, 

 even the white markings being very dim. 

 Certainly a city's smoke is 'powerful soil- 

 ful.' It appears to the writer that there 

 have been more Bluebirds about the 

 region than usual, and it is most earnestly 

 hoped that this is not merely an impression, 

 but a happy fact. — W. H. Bergtold, 

 Denver, Colo. 



San Francisco Region. — Spring bird 

 records began with the finding of the nest 

 of an Allen Hummingbird on February 13. 

 The nest, though incomplete, contained 

 one egg, which with its mate hatched on 

 March 15, and the two midgets flew off into 

 the wide world on March 25 — a chilly, 

 rainy day. The House Wren won second 

 place in the list of spring migrants, three 

 being seen together on March 5. The two 

 males were bursting with song, and I sup- 

 pose must have settled the question as to 

 which one was superfluous in that par- 



