Sept., 1918 187 



FROM FIELD AND STUDY 



Second Occurrence of Wilson Plover in California.— While strolling on the ocean 

 shore at Imperial Beach, San Diego, County, California, May 11, 1918, examining with the 

 aid of glasses various waders, I discovered a Wilson Plover (Ochthodromus milsonius wil- 

 sonius) and three Snowy Plovers engaged in feeding along the wave-swept beach. They 

 all took flight, circled around over the breakers and settled on the wet sand at the edge 

 of the water. ' The Wilson Plover permitted me to approach to within some fifty feet, 

 then running rapidly would catch up with its more timid companions which had earlier 

 moved out of possible danger. Similar acts were repeated a number of times; it then 

 took the lead, uttered a few notes and flew in the direction of the original feeding place. 

 On disappearing from sight, I retraced my steps nearly a quarter of a mile, and there, not 

 a hundred feet from where they first flew, on a dry portion of the beach, the Wilson was 

 seen standing on the sand-drift. Its associates were close by. Two of them claimed own- 

 ership to a set of three eggs; the other appeared greatly disturbed when I examined a 

 shell-lined hollow in the sand. Suspecting that the Wilson might have a brooding mate, 

 1 withdrew to watch from a distance, but as I did so, the bird gradually approached near- 

 er. When I stopped, it would also stop and remain motionless. If I advanced too near, 

 it would retreat, keeping the distance between us at all times the same or about so. This 

 peculiar action was too trying for me, so I decided to give up temporarily the hunt for 

 its nest. 



On June 16, I searched the beach carefully without seeing a bird of this species. 

 All further attempts to locate this Wilson Plover were frustrated by the U. S. Govern- 

 ment; for on my next visit to this locality, the beach and the road leading to it were pla- 

 carded with large wooden signs, reading "Danger: U. S. Aerial Gunnery Range." 



So far as I can learn, this is the only Wilson Plover seen in the state since the spe- 

 cies was added to the list of the birds of California through the record of a male taken by 

 myself at Pacific Beach, June 29, 1894 (Nidiologist, n, May, 1895, p. 87).— A. M. Ixgek- 

 soll, San Diego, California, August 4. 1918. 



Heermann Gull With White Primary Coverts. — Mr. Willett's note regarding the 

 occurrence of white primary coverts in Larus Jieermanni (Condor, xx, May, 1918, p. 122), 

 suggests the advisability of recording a similar specimen in the Museum of the Geolog- 

 ical Survey of Canada. This bird is a female in worn changing plumage, probably just 

 coming into maturity, taken August 14, 1917, at Alert Bay, B. C, off the northeast coast of 

 Vancouver Island. Four outer primary coverts on one wing and two on the other are 

 pure white. The dissimilarity is probably due to molt. Of a hundred or more gulls of 

 this species observed at the same time and during several successive days this was the 

 only one noted that showed these conspicuous white wrists in flight, and it was collected 

 on that account. It is difficult to offer a satisfactory explanation to this sporadically 

 (?) recurring variation. — P. A. Tayerxer. Museum Geological Survey, Ottawa, Ontario, 

 August 10, WIS. 



Pacific Coast Records of the European Widgeon. — Fifty years ago Dr. J. G. Cooper 

 published the first note on the presence of the European Widgeon (Mareca penelope) on 

 the Pacific Coast. Since then, reports of the capture of this species have appeared from 

 time to time, the most recent being that of Mailliard in The Condor for last May, relative 

 to specimens secured in 1908 and 1917. The records of the occurrence of the European 

 Widgeon in America now number more than a hundred, of which nearly twenty percent 

 are based on specimens taken on the Pacific Coast. The Alaska and British Columbia 

 records have been published several times and need not be repeated here. The Wash- 

 ington records are all recent and are due to the energy of Bowles and Warburton who 

 have reported one record for each winter since 1915. So far as I am aware Oregon is not 

 yet represented by any notes on this species. The California list includes at least eleven 

 records, representing a dozen or more specimens and is exceeded only by that of North 

 Carolina. Most of the California records are mentioned in Grinnell, Bryant and Storer's 

 "Game Birds of California" (in press), but the data of the California and Washington 



