BULLETIN No. 36 -J-J 



would not likely be seen by the tourist who is only causually 

 interested in birds. 



It seems to the writer that our critic was unfortunate in his 

 choice of the form of destructive criticism, because it has no 

 doubt led him much farther than was intended. Furthermore, 

 he has wholly misconstrued the spirit of the " Reconnoisance." 

 It was not intended that the results have any general scientific 

 value. We were out to become acquainted with as many 

 species new to us as possible, and had nothing other in mind 

 than to satisfy ourselves. In our own opinion we have made 

 no local lists, and therefore compete with none. Our object in 

 placing the results of this work before the reading public is only 

 to give a concrete illustration of what one may accomplish in 

 the way of a study of the birds during " a ride on a rail." 



\ am fully in sympathy with my critic in seeking to save 

 his locality from errors of identification, but I still maintain that 

 ability to determine species on the fly is no less worthy of en- 

 deavor than the ability to determine in hand scarcely discern- 

 ible differences in closely allied forms. 1 protest against the 

 notion that the only good bird is a dead bird. 



To pass on, now, the species objected to. Green-tailed 

 Towhee and Western Winter Wrens are pretty clearly mistakes 

 due to a too hasty revision of my field note-book. The Cali- 

 o rnia Thrasher and Samuel's Song Sparrow are indistinguish- 

 able in the field from the closely allied forms and since their 

 franges are not adequately defined in any writings available 

 both forms were admitted. A better plan would have been to 

 follow them with a question mark. While the record of the 

 Prairie Falcon and Black-tailed Gnatcatcher may not satisfy 

 anybody else, the specimens not having been taken, I have no 

 doubt about them. The Falcon has become so familiar to me 

 in the regions just traversed that I could not have mistaken it 

 for any of the other Raptores likely to occur there. The Gnat- 

 catcher was, too well seen to warrant a doubt. The California 

 Cuckoo could hardly be mistaken for any other species, espe- 

 cially in the setting in which 1 found it. it is wholly against 

 the experience of the most of us that because a species happens 



