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Bird - Lore 



rows, Oregon Towhees, and a single Ruby- 

 crowned Kinglet — all together in a large 

 flock of several hundred birds feeding in the 

 debris caused by the storm. This association 

 of practically all the birds in this locality in 

 one flock, all feeding on the ground on the 

 broken branches, has endured for nearly 

 two months. 



The Audubon Warbler, usually a fairly 

 common winter resident, has been very 

 scarce, although farther south around Cor- 

 vallis they were found in numbers on De- 

 cember 30. A dead one was picked up in 

 Sellwood on January 1 and brought to 

 Stanley G. Jewett. 



On January 19, while crossing one of the 

 Willamette bridges, a Glaucous Gull flew 

 past at close range. There are several records 

 of this bird for Portland, though this is the 

 first for this winter. Glaucous-winged, 

 Western and Short-billed Gulls are as 

 abundant as usual on the river and a few 

 Californias have been noted at various times. 

 The Short-billed Gulls spend much time in 

 the various parks and in the suburban dis- 

 tricts, foraging like a flock of Crows. 



Crows have been unusually abundant, the 

 several small roosts in the vicinity of Port- 

 land all having a much larger population than 

 during the last two years. Such winter birds 

 as the Evening Grosbeak, Varied Thrush, 

 and Fox Sparrows of several subspecies have 

 not been as conspicuous nor as abundant 

 as usual in spite of the severe winter. 



The first evidences of spring migration 

 were noted on January 22 when several 

 flocks of Geese were seen, and on January 

 23 large numbers of Western Meadowlarks 

 and Northwestern Flickers appeared in 

 districts where only a few have been present 

 up to this time. Renewed cold stopped the 

 movement, but the birds already here have 

 remained. The Robins arrived in force last 

 year on January 29, but began to appear here 

 in numbers on February 3 this season. Mr. 

 Gale, in the eastern part of the city, reports 

 that Nuttall's and Golden-crowned Sparrows 

 remained all winter about his feeding-station. 

 The former is rather a rare winter resident. 

 W. A. Elliott reports that a Lutescent War- 

 bler came to his home on December 9 

 and remained for some time. 



Mrs. W. P. Jones reported a strange bird 

 to members of the Audubon Society and 

 later Miss Mary Raker visited the place 

 and identified the bird as the Chinese Star- 

 ling (Acridotheres cristatellus) , a bird with 

 which she was familiar from observations 

 made at Vancouver, B. C, where there is 

 quite a colony of these birds. The writer has 

 visited the locality twice (on February 5 and 

 6) and carefully watched this bird, and agrees 

 with Miss Raker in her identification. Prob- 

 ably this bird is either an escaped cage- 

 bird or a wanderer from the British Columbia 

 colony. It is quite shy, although it frequently 

 visits the feeding-station. Mrs. Jones states 

 that it has been coming to her feeding- 

 station quite regularly since before Thanks- 

 giving. Realizing the necessity for care in 

 basing first records on sight identifications, 

 the writer hesitates to record this bird 

 formally'. However, there does not seem to 

 be any chance for mistaken identity of this 

 curiously crested bird. While this is its first 

 known appearance in Portland, there is no 

 reason why it should not eventually spread 

 over the Northwest from the established 

 colony in British Columbia. — Ira N. 

 Gabkielson, Portland, Ore. 



San Francisco Region. — Winter weather 

 culminated in a real freeze on January 19 and 

 a real snowstorm on January 29. The effect 

 of the cold upon the birds was more marked 

 than that of the snow. A temperature of 

 23 degrees made the Thrasher keep one foot 

 tucked up under his feathers while he warmed 

 the 'inner bird' with suet and bread crumbs. 

 The White-throated Sparrow, on the other 

 hand, hopped about on the frozen drinking- 

 fountain, scratching about quite uncon- 

 cernedly among the fallen leaves. If he cams 

 this way to avoid the cold, he wasted no time 

 grumbling over his disappointment, but 

 showed himself quite equal to the challenge of 

 an unexpected environment. When, on the 

 29th, the falling snow buried the food pro- 

 vided, the Thrasher gave up trying to dig it 

 out with his beak, but the Fox Sparrow and 

 the Spurred Towhee kept scratching energet- 

 ically, even after the snow was four inches 

 deep on the feeding-table. Human inter- 

 ference prevented famine for twenty-four 



