404 General Notes. [j^y 



Anthus spraguei. Sprague's Pipit. — A specimen was collected April 4^ 

 1905, at Fort Lowell and is now in the Thayer collection. It was identified 

 at the Biological Survey. 



Regulus satrapa olivaceus. Western Golden-crowned Kinglet. 

 — A specimen was taken by C. Birdseye, September 14, 1908, in the White 

 Mountains and is now in the collection of the Biological Survey. 



Hylocichla guttata sequoiensis. Sierra Hermit Thrush. — A 

 specimen was taken by Dr. A. K. Fisher May 14, 1892, at Fort Huachuca 

 and is now in the collection of the Biological Survey. 



The Swarth list enumerates 362 species for Arizona. The above records 

 add 9 species, or a total of 371 species now known from the state. — Wells 

 W. Cooke, Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 



Birds transporting Food Supplies. — Mr. Chas. T. Ramsden's in- 

 teresting note 1 on " The Bobolink as a conveyer of moUusca " suggests to 

 mc the desirability of drawing attention to two other instances of similar 

 phenomena. Professor G. E. Beyer of Tulane University, who has been a 

 close student of Louisiana birds for manj'^ years, has collected numerous 

 Upland Plover {Bartramia longicauda) soon after their arrival upon the 

 Gulf Coast, which bore beneath their wings from 20 to 40 small snails of 

 the Genus Physa. In repl}' to a query about this po'int Professor Beyer,, 

 in a letter of August 7, 1911, says: " The peculiar habit which this bird 

 has in conceaUng the snails among the under wing feathers has been known 

 to me for many years. When first discovered I pointed out this singular 

 fact to several of my hunter friends. The occurrence, however, was so 

 regular and was confirmed so often in after years, that I expected the habit 

 to be generally known. I used to count the number of snails regularly; 

 at one time I found as many as forty-one, oftener between twenty and thirty, 

 never less than ten or twelve. The stomachs of the birds alwaj^s contain 

 a number of crushed shells of the snails. Furthermore, the finding of these 

 snails is only possible if the birds are obtained shortly after their arrival 

 from the south, the earliest date of which I always placed about March 22. 

 I was at the time unable to determine whether the species of snail was the 

 same or different from ours, for the genus contains several species. At the 

 time the ' Papabottes ' arrive here, Physa is not common with us and 

 does not become plentiful until May and June. I am sorry to say that I 

 became as it were side-tracked in after years as I had intended to continue 

 this inquiry and extend it to other migratory birds of a similar nature." 



The notes by Professor Beyer and Mr. Ramsden give us the final phase of 

 the phenomenon but they do not show how the snails reached the position 

 in which they were found. The following brief note published by Grace 

 Ellicott of New Castle, Ind., in ' The Guide to Nature ' ^ gives an account of 

 the initial stage of a similar occurrence. Miss Ellicott's contribution is as 



1 Auk, XXXI, 1914, p. 250. 



2 Vol. I, No. 5, Aug. 1908, p. 168. 



