214 



Bird - Lore 



will be found a number of records by Mr. 

 Mousley and others bearing on the influx 

 of various species from the north during 

 the past winter — Evening Grosbeaks, 

 Hudsonian Chickadees and others among 

 them. 



A new species of Red-winged Black- 

 bird {Agelaius phceniceus grinnelli), from 

 western Central America, is described by 

 Mr. A. B. Howell, and a new name for the 

 White-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta carolinen- 

 sis cookei, is proposed by Mr. H. C. Ober- 

 holser, the old one by a tragic interpre- 

 tation of nomenclatural rules, being trans- 

 ferred to the Florida form. It would be 

 convenient to have the 'Notes on North 

 American Birds' by Mr. Oberholser pre- 

 sented in systematic order rather than in 

 the haphazard way the series has begun — 

 a systematic ornithologist ought to be 

 systematic first of all. His 'Second Annual 

 List of Proposed Changes in the A. O. U. 

 Check-List,' a compilation of published 

 items is, however, a useful contribution. 

 -J. D. 



The Condor. — Of the seven general 

 articles in the March 'Condor,' the two 

 local lists merit special attention. Rust's 

 'Annotated List of the Birds of Fremont 

 County, Idaho,' occupies nearly one-third 

 of the number and is illustrated by a map 

 and twelve photographs. It includes notes 

 on one hundred and three species based on 

 observations made in the summer of 19 1 6. 

 Fremont County adjoins the western 

 boundary of the Yellowstone National 

 Park, and although it has a much larger 

 proportion of sage brush country within 

 its boundaries, a comparison of its bird- 

 list with that of the Park would be 

 instructive. The carefully prepared 'List 

 of the Birds Breeding in San Francisco 

 County, California,' by Hansen and 

 Squires, is of peculiar interest in showing 

 some of the changes which have occurred 

 in a district of forty-one square miles 

 where within the last seventy years a great 

 metropolis has been built. If the ten 

 species practically limited to the Farallon 



Islands and the introduced Sparrow and 

 the Ring-necked Pheasant are omitted, the 

 number of species is reduced to fifty- 

 eight. The most remarkable facts are 

 the finding of the Robin, Junco, Pine 

 Siskin, and Pigeon Guillemot in recent 

 years, and the absence of the Brown 

 Towhee which is so abundant and charac- 

 teristic elsewhere in the Bay region. This 

 list should be compared with the one pub- 

 lished by Ray in 'The Condor' for Novem- 

 ber, 1916, pages 222-227. 



Sell describes graphically the havoc 

 wrought among the Brown Pelicans and 

 other water-birds at Corpus Christi, Tex., 

 by the storm of August 18, 1916. As if by 

 way of contrast, this article is followed by 

 a chapter of Mrs. Bailey's delightful 

 description of the peaceful bird-life of the 

 humid coast as observed at Tillamook 

 Bay, Ore. 



From a study of one hundred and 

 twenty-three specimens of Williamson's 

 Sapsucker, Swarth concludes that two 

 forms are recognizable and separates the 

 Rocky Mountain bird from the typical 

 California form under the name Sphy- 

 rapicus thyroideus natalioR (Malherbe). 



Wetmore describes an abnormal egg of 

 the common Coot {Fulica americana) 

 found near the mouth of Bear River, 

 Utah, May 29, 1916, and attributes the 

 abnormality in size and markings to "con- 

 tinuous excitement and fear and their 

 reaction through the nervous system, 

 upon the ordinary functions of the 

 oviduct." 



Palmer gives the full names of fifty- 

 two writers on California birds — com- 

 prising about half of the list of those 

 whose names were incomplete in Grinnell's 

 'Bibliography of California Ornithology.' 



Among the shorter notes Oberholser 

 records the total number of species and 

 subspecies of birds now known from Texas 

 as 605. Clay adds the Savannah Sparrow 

 and Grinnell the Eastern Goshawk to the 

 California list making the total number of 

 species and subspecies in that state list 

 apparently 544. — T. S. P. 



