Sept., 1921 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 169 
was revealed by the bruised body when the bird was skinned. The specimen was imme- 
diately forwarded to Berkeley where it was made into a study skin and now constitutes 
no. 41912 in the bird department of the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. The 
sex organs were so decomposed by the time the bird was skinned that it is not possible 
to state with absolute certainty the sex or breeding condition. The bird had the speckled 
plumage and square tail which usually characterize the female of this swift. There was 
nothing to indicate that it had bred recently or was about to breed. In the flesh, the 
specimen measured: length, 6% inches; spread, 1514 inches. The bird was poor, weignh- 
ing but 27 grams, whereas fat females average about 47 grams.—JosEPpH Dixon, Museum 
of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California, July 1, 1921. 
The Bryant Cactus Wren Not a Bird of California.—I had opportunity recently to 
examine the Cactus Wrens in the A. W. Anthony collection of birds now owned by the 
Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. The type of Heleodytes brunneicapillus bryanti (orig. 
no. 3879, coll. A. W. Anthony, now no. 17789, Carnegie Mus., San Telmo, Lower Calit., 
April 30, 1893) is in badly worn and stained breeding plumage; but the race is repre- 
sented further by a good series and is a perfectly valid one, with characters as given by 
Anthony (Auk, xI, 1894, p. 212). However, the range of bryanti does not reach north in 
Lower California anywhere nearly as far as the International Boundary; specimens 
from San Diego County, California, which have been labelled “bryanti” prove to exhibit 
only a slight tendency in that direction, being much nearer H. b. cowesi. Those individ- 
uals showing nearly or quite complete white-barring of the tail do not show the other 
diagnostic features of bryanti, namely very heavy spotting below and dark upper sur- 
face. The name bryanti must therefore be expunged from the California list of birds, 
and the name cowesi used for all the Cactus Wrens occurring within the state.—J. Grin- 
NELL, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California, June 24, 1921. 
Birds Observed in a Redwcod Grove.—I was pleasantly surprised at the number 
of birds I heard and saw while spending a few hours in the Mariposa Grove of Big 
Trees, near Wawona, Mariposa County, California. The first birds to greet me were a 
pair of Northern Pileated Woodpeckers, fit denizens of such a magnificent forest. They 
were busily engaged in chipping off large pieces of wood from a dead log, presumably 
looking for insects, and admitted of close approach. 
Next in line came a male Western Tanager, perching on a lichen-covered stump 
and catching his noon meal of insects. Blue-fronted Jays and Robins were everywhere. 
Sierra Creepers looked exceptionally small as they were running up the huge tree trunks. 
From every direction came the songs of the Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Mountain Chicka- 
dees and Red-breasted Nuthatches. Occasionally an Audubon Warbler could be seen; 
and a Modoc Hairy Woodpecker came quite close in his. quest for food. 
What impressed me was not so much the variety of birds encountered, but rather 
the number of individuals heard and seen.—JunEA W. KELLY, Alameda, California, June 
16, 1921. 
Field Notes from Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, California.— Mareca am- 
ericanad. A pair seen June 25, 1921, in a tule-bordered lagoon near the mouth of the 
Santa Clara River, Ventura County. 
Marila valisineria. A male seen June 25, in the same lagoon, perhaps a wounded 
bird. 
Sayornis sayus. Nesting in a barranca just off the Coast Highway three miles 
west of Ventura. On June 24 the parents were feeding young on insects which they 
caught on the beach about an eighth of a mile away. 
Molothrus ater obscurus. Frequent in willows and about a stock-pen near the 
mouth of the Santa Clara River, Ventura County. One egg found in a nest of the Loneg- 
tailed Chat. A few seen repeatedly at the mouth of the Ventura River, and a male ob- 
served on July 15 at Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County. 
Ammodramus savannarum binaculatus. Frequent on June 25 along the dry, grav- 
elly flood-plain of the Santa Clara River, Ventura County, near its mouth—Ratrpu Horr- 
MANN, Carpinteria, California, July 16, 1921. 
