4g 



THE OOLOGIST 3^ '^^ ^^ ^"7 



24; Swallow, 56; Grossbeaks, 10 

 Warbler, 24; Chickadees, 24 

 House Wren, 16; Catbird, 52 

 Vireos, 11; *Sparrow, 167 



Goldfinch, 14; Baltimore Oriole, 14 

 Meadow Lark, 15; Bluejay, 25; Hum- 

 ming Bird, 10; Nighthawk, 3; North- 

 ern Flicker, 24; Woodpeckers, 15; 

 Ruffed Grouse, 46; Ringnecked Pheas- 

 ant, 11; Bobwhite, 44; Woodcock, 11. 

 *Not including English Sparrow. 



"All of these birds and many others 

 spoken of are friends of the farmer, 

 consuming quantities of insect pests 

 and noxious weed seeds. Owners of 

 cats have rights, of course. So do 

 neighbors who love the birds. The 

 owner of the cat that kills birds and 

 who balks his neighbor who is striv- 

 ing to conserve bird life places him- 

 self in an untenable position. He has 

 no more right to keep a bird killing 

 cat than to keep a savage dog, each 

 to go abroad a menace to the neigh- 

 bor, himself and his birds. 



"Of the many reports received con- 

 cerning efforts made to license the 

 cat, one of the most striking comes 

 from the Rockaway Bird Club, Far 

 Rockaway, L. I.: 'It is safe to say,' 

 v^rite^ MioS Margaret S. Green, secre- 

 tary, 'that dozens and perhaps hun- 

 dreds of cats are left to starve and 

 prey upon our native birds when their 

 careless or cruel owners remove from 

 our locality in the fall'." — Sportsmen's 

 Review. 



» ♦ « 



A HYBRID. 



While attending the annual meet- 

 ing on the Alberta National History 

 Society at Red Deer, Alberta, on Nov. 

 29, 1916, I had the pleasure of seeing 

 a very curious and interesting hybrid 

 male Mallard and Pintail, the charac- 

 ters of each evenly defined. Such a 

 cross in the wild state certainly must 

 be rare. Think of seeing a Pintail 

 with a green head! 



This bird was shot at Red Deer, Al- 

 berta, in the fall of 1916, and I think is 

 a record for the district. It is the first 

 specimen of its kind to come under 

 my notice, and I thought it worthy 

 of mention here to see if any of our 

 older bird students have met with any- 

 thing like it. 



George L. Cook. 

 Bashaw, Alta. 



A COLLECTING TRIP ^N SOUTH- 

 ERN CALIFORNIA. 



Starting from Escondido, which is 

 situated in a fertile valley of that 

 name which lies in the central part of 

 San Diego County, on the afternoon of 

 the sixth of April, we drove for many 

 miles through a rolling country adapt- 

 '3d for the most part to grain and cat- 

 cle raising and containing but little of 

 nterest to the oologist except an occa- 

 ;ional pair of California Horned Larks 

 and a few pair of Burrowing Owls 

 which were setting up housekeeping 

 in squirrel holes by the roadside. 



After traveling about twelve miles 

 we entered the fertile San Luis Rey 

 valley and passed close by the famous 

 old mission of that name. In a clump 

 of willows not far from the old mis- 

 cicn a pair of Desert Sparrow Hawks 

 v/ere nesting in a hollow in one of the 

 trees. The nest was in a large cavity 

 about 10 feet from the ground and 

 about 30 inches from the entrance and 

 at this date contained an incomplete 

 ■:et of two eggs. Neither bird v/as in- 

 cubating as both birds flew from the 

 top of a dead tree as we were pass- 

 ing. Here also was a pond of about 

 ten acres in extent and on it around 

 its edges were noted several differ- 

 ent water birds, among which were 

 several migratory waders which were 

 unidentified. Hunting around and 

 over this little lake we noted a pair 

 of Eagles which undoubtedly had a 

 nest with young not far away as they 



