38 THE CONDOR Vol. XXIII 
situated in a lonely canyon about thirty-two miles east of the Pacific. He appeared very 
hungry and+tired, alternately feeding and resting. He violently shook and ate the head 
of a rabbit discarded by our collie; he mangled a hornet attracted by the rabbit, but 
suddenly decided not to devour it; he snapped at passing insects; he thrust his bill with 
such force into a cluster of white geraniums that the petals flew in fragments to the 
ground; he stalked under the fig trees, with his pale lavender-gray webbed feet, and 
tossed the figs about, though he did not seem to relish them especially. He circled the 
collie, who had been nonchalantly watching him, and would have alighted on her back 
if she had not flicked her ear. He appeared absolutely fearless, often walking within 
touching distance of our hands, and occasionally resting close beside us, partially shut- 
ting his eyes, and fluffing out his breast in drowsy content. 
One hour he stayed with us, and in that hour I had ample opportunity to examine 
him minutely and identify him as a young Sabine Gull (Xema sabini). This identifi- 
eation was later corroborated by Dr. Grinnell, who added that the bird was “evidently 
in full juvenal plumage—a bird hatched last June”. Then he lifted his beautiful wings 
and flew away, flew low, over the mesas and the sage-grown hillsides, flew toward the 
east in a faltering manner, as though he fain would return. 
Did our beautiful bird, 
Pearlecito (for so we named him), safely voyage over the chaparral?—MELICENT HUMA- 
Son Ler, El Cajon, California, November 29, 1920. 
EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 
New Year’s morning, Mrs. Amelia S. Al- 
len, Secretary of the Northern Division of 
the Cooper Club, gave a reception to the 
Club at her home on Mosswood Road, Berke- 
ley. The occasion was a pleasant one social- 
ly, and in addition there was an ornitho- 
logical feature of remarkable interest. The 
bird feeding table just outside the large 
plate window of the dining room where 
breakfast was served to the human guests 
was continually patronized by numerous 
avian visitors. These latter represented 
some ten or more_ species—thrashers, 
thrushes, wren-tits, towhees, etc.—all wild 
birds, behaving normally. The differential 
lighting on the two sides of the window, 
darker within than without, doubtless in 
part accounted for the charming oblivious- 
ness of the birds. Within, the considerable 
- company of people was able to observe the 
birds closely under most comfortable condi- 
tions, even to comment upon them freely in 
ordinary conversational pitch of voice, with- 
out alarming or distracting the principals 
in the nature play being acted outside. 
Mr. Aretas A. Saunders, author of Avi- 
fauna No. 14 (Birds of Montana), now in 
press, has called our attention to an error 
in the postcard pre-notices of this publica- 
tion sent out recently by our Business Man- 
ager. Mr. Saunders was for five years with 
the United States Forestry Service, and dur- 
ing two summers worked at the Biological 
Station of the University of Montana; but 
at no time has he been connected with the 
United States Biological Survey, as was 
stated. 
Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Bailey are in camp 
for the winter in the foothills of the Santa 
Rita Mountains, Arizona (post office, Conti- 
nental, Pima County). Their camp mascot 
is a Roadrunner who “comes regularly for 
spare mice”. 
We learn from Dr. T. S. Palmer that the 
meeting of the American Ornithologists’ 
Union in Washington, D. C., November 8-11, 
1920, was one of the largest in the history 
of the Union. One-half of the Fellows and 
about ten percent of the entire membership 
were in attendance. The business meetings 
were held at the Cosmos Club and the other — 
sessions at the U. S. National Museum. The 
-election of Fellows and Members included 
Mr. Robert Cushman Murphy of Brooklyn, 
N. Y., as Fellow; Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker and 
Dr. Percy Lowe of London, Honorary Fel- 
lows; and Mr. Ira N. Gabrielson, Dr. Loye 
Miller, Mr. Aretas A. Saunders, Prof. T. C. 
Stephens, and Prof. Myron H. Swenk, as 
Members in the restricted sense. The pro- 
gram of nearly 40 papers, five of which 
were illustrated by motion pictures, covered 
a wide range of subjects relating to North 
American birds and also included papers on 
the birds of Argentina, Nicaragua, Peru, 
Europe and Madagascar. In connection with 
the meeting an exhibition of drawings, paint- 
ings, and photographs of birds by American 
artists, supplemented by a series of prints 
showing the development of zoological illus- 
tration as applied to birds from the earliest 
times down to date, was arranged in the Di- 
vision of Prints in the Library of Congress. 
