Mar., 1917 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 71 



state; there are summer specimens at hand to prove it. It is quite likely that birds of 

 this relatively resident race scatter out over the lower territory to a greater or less ex- 

 tent in winter; and thus it may be that all of the Goshawks recorded (rather rarely) in 

 usual years, and some of the Goshawks this year, belong to the race striatulus. But 

 there is good ground for suspecting that there has been the past winter an invasion of 

 California (and probably most other western states) by the extreme northern and east- 

 ern race, atricapillus, and that such an invasion is of very infrequent occurrence. 



In the Auk (xxxiv, 19l7, pp. 87-88) C. D. Bunker reports that a "flight" of "Amer- 

 ican Goshawks" has visited Kansas the past fall; from October 27 to November 20, 1916, 

 nine specimens were brought in to the Museum of the University of Kansas. The coinci- 

 dence of these dates with those of the California-taken specimens is noteworthy. 



In this connection, this year's invasion by the Snowy Owl into northern California 

 is also of interest (see Bryant, Calif. Fish and Game, m, 1917, pp. 37-38). It is possible 

 that the Eastern Goshawks and the Snowy Owls came from the same summer home, and 

 that their unusually extended autumnal exodus was due to the same cause. This cause 

 may be supposed to have been a lessening supply of food (rodents and birds) succeeding 

 a period of plenty when the owl and hawk population had augmented above its normal. 

 — J. Grixxell, Berkeley, California, February 13, 1911. 



Del Norte County Bird Notes. — August 13, 1916, proved not a day of evil omen, the 

 13th, but rather a most pleasant one, and producing interesting notes. Through the kind- 

 ness of Martin Lund, the well known diver, who was looking for lost treasure claimed to 

 be on the "Brother Jonathan" when she sank off Point St. George about fifty years ago, 

 I was placed by those on his launch on Castle Island, off Point St. George and three 

 miles north from Crescent City. 



Despite the fact that eighteen head of sheep roam over the broken flat on the north 

 slope, the Kaeding Petrel (Oceanodroma kaedingi) is nesting there to the number of a 

 thousand or more, and often their burrows are dug right in the sheeps' trails. On the 

 steep crags to the north and oceanwards I counted forty-three nests of the Baird Cor- 

 morant (Phalacrocorax p. resplendens) from one position. The Tufted Puffin (Lunda 

 cirrJiata) was nesting, in colonies and scattered pairs, in suitable places along the rim 

 of the hundred foot bluff. 



The top of Castle Island is accessible only at the northeast end and towards the 

 mainland. It covers several acres, reaching its highest point at the southwest, where 

 a row of pinnacles forms a barren ridge, the nesting site of numerous Western Gulls 

 (Larus occidentalis) . Nests of cormorants, puffins and gulls all contained large young. 

 From a number of gulls' nests, the young had flown, but those of cormorants and puffins 

 contained birds in every instance. The petrels had nearly all left the nests. 



At the landing the water was dotted with exposed rocks, several rising some thirty 

 feet high, the largest a continuation of the main island that could be reached by jump- 

 ing from boulder to boulder at low water. At the water's edge, on the main rock and on 

 the one just mentioned, I found two nests of the Pigeon Guillemot (Cepphus colum,ba) , 

 each containing two large young. While I was sitting at the water's edge two Wander- 

 ing Tattlers (Heteractitis incanus) quietly appeared through a crevice between the rocks, 

 and stood erect eying me at a distance of exactly six feet. 



While sitting in the same place where the tattlers had appeared, eating lunch and 

 watching the California Murres (Uria troille calif ornica) travelling between Castle Rock 

 and the one at my back, I observed a flock of about a dozen turnstones fly by. Most 

 interesting of all, though, were the actions of five Black Oyster-catchers (Haematopus 

 bachmani). They sat close together on a nearby rock, alert, and with their occasional 

 calls, accompanied by the sudden uplifting of the forward part of their bodies. When I 

 moved the piping became more frequent, and when I arose and moved in the birds' direc- 

 tion, they circled about, alighting on a nearby rock, and again on the one from which 

 they had flown. 



Grinnell's "Distributional List of the Birds of California", gives Trinidad, Hum- 

 boldt County, as the only locality in California where this species is known to occur 

 north of the Farallon Islands and Point Reyes. Castle Island, off Point St. George, is 

 probably the northernmost rock of any size on the California coast, so the birds I saw 

 probably hold the northern record for the state.— C. I. Clay, Eureka, California, Decem- 

 ber 25, 1916. 



