92 THE CONDOR Vol. XX 



species upon the breeding grounds, at least in that portion included in the Chiricahua 

 Mountains, Arizona, is very much later. In this range of mountains, about fifteen miles 

 distant from Rodeo, the Stephens Whip-poor-will is a fairly common summer visitant to 

 the oak region, but I did not record it there during 1917 until May 21, this at Paradise 

 Post Office. — Austin Paul Smith, Rio Hondo. Texas, December 29, 1917. 



Some Pugnacious Coots. — Our boat house rests in a cut opening out of Butte 

 Slough, in Colusa County, California. Between the end of the boat house and the current 

 of the slough, there are sixty or eighty feet of still water; three Mud Hens (Fulica ameri- 

 cana) have taken possession of this spot. They have grown quite tame; not only do they 

 come up to the boat house for their food, but when hungry swim up and are clamorously 

 insistent with their "put-put-put". 



The men have frequently told me that they were murderous fighters against their 

 own kind, and one day I was a witness of such a fight. A strange Mud Hen swam from 

 the creek into the quiet water. The first of the three to see him attacked the stranger at 

 once, "putting" harshly, and the intruder gave battle without the slightest attempt to re- 

 treat. They pecked at each other savagely. The other two boat house Mud Hens swam 

 up to the fray, one of them joining in, the other, the smallest of the three and probably 

 the female, simply looking on. In time they pecked the strange Mud Hen into a state of 

 exhaustion. It was manifestly too weak to fly, but tried to make its escape by swimming. 

 They followed it up, and one actually stood on its body while the other held its head un- 

 der the water until it was dead. When satisfied of this, they left it. 



The men tell me that nearly every day they murder one of their kind in this man- 

 ner, and yet oddly enough they pay not the slightest attention to crippled ducks which 

 drift down the current and often take refuge in the same cut. It would, of course, be 

 perfectly easy for the Mud Hen which is attacked to escape by flight, but in no instance, 

 my men say, has one ever attempted to do so. 



The third and smaller Mud Hen never takes part in the fight, but is always an in- 

 terested spectator. Once a battle began when only one of the boat house Mud Hens was 

 present, but its call soon brought the other two, which had drifted down the creek, and 

 they came back to the rescue flying. It seemed to me to be a curious phase of pugnacity, 

 considering the gregarious habits of the bird. — F. W. Henshaw, San Francisco, January 

 26, 1918. 



The Name of the American Barn Swallow. — In a recent paper entitled "The Birds 

 of the Anamba Islands" (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., no. 98, June 30, 1917, pp. v+75, 2 pis.), 

 Dr. H. C. Oberholser discusses the relationships of the American Barn Swallow with the 

 closely similar forms of the Old World. He concludes that intergradation is complete 

 through several intervening races between Hirundo rustica, the common Swallow of Eu- 

 rope, and our own Barn Swallow, and hence adopts the trinomial form of designation for 

 the latter — Hirundo rustica erythrogastris. Also the race palmeri once proposed by me 

 from Alaska is not deemed tenable. With regard to both contentions the supporting facts 

 presented seem to me now conclusive. 



In the spelling of the subspecific name of the American form, however, I believe 

 Oberholser to be wrong, and erythrogaster should be the proper spelling, not erythrogas- 

 tris. The term erythrogaster cannot be considered an adjective. It is a Greek noun, re- 

 taining its own gender and case when Latinized. Hirundo is feminine, but that should 

 not affect the ending of the third term of the trinomial the case of which is, in this in- 

 stance, nominative. If there were any doubt about this, final appeal to the original de- 

 scriber ought to settle it. The bird was described as Hirundo erythrogaster, which shows 

 well enough the writer's intention. The name of our Barn Swallow ought to stand as 

 Hirundo rustica erythrogaster. I am indebted to Professor W. A. Merrill, of the Latin 

 department of the University of California, for pertinent information in connection with 

 my present enquiry. 



There seems to be a tendency even yet towards unnecessarily tampering with the 

 spelling of names as originally proposed by describers. In this regard I wish also to 

 protest against Oberholser's misquotation of my name Guiraca caerulea salicarius, emend- 

 ing it to O. c. salicaria (Auk, vol. 34, April, 1917, p. 204). Salicarius was employed as a 

 noun, obviously. — J. Grinnell, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California. Jan- 

 uary 9, 1918. 



