Nov., 1921 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 191 
business of getting away straight ahead. It was flying about twenty-five feet over the 
road-bed and appeared plainly to be exerting all its energy. During this very short 
time the bird had gotten about thirty or forty feet ahead of me when I commenced 
crowding it. 
Accelerating my speed until I attained thirty-five miles an hour, I saw I was 
gaining perceptibly on the bird, and maintained that speed. The dove was evidently 
resigned to its fate, for it flew straight over the road-bed for about a quarter of a mile, 
whein ‘I came: almost under it, and with a violent left-wing stroke it shot off to the 
right and over the fields. At this instant I was endeavoring to regulate my speed to 
correspond with that of the bird, but its sudden side-step frustrated this. It is, how- 
ever, safe to conclude that the dove’s flight was in the neighborhood of thirty miles an 
hour. Certainly it was considerably less than thirty-five miles an hour, and there was 
no wind to hinder or assist its progress. Moreover its actions were totally unlike those 
of most doves under similar circumstances. They seldom crouch before flushing, and 
they usually fly to the right or the left, exhibiting no trace of confusion. 
One element of error in the conclusion that the greatest speed of doves is: thirty 
miles an hour remains, namely, that this bird may have been a grown juvenile with as 
yet undeveloped powers oi flight; but it did not appear so to me.—FRANK N. BASSETT, 
Alameda, California, August 16, 1921. ; 
The Intrepid Pewee.—During the week, August 15 to 21, 1921, we were in one 
of the Fallen Leaf Lodge cottages on the edge of Fallen Leaf Lake, Eldorado County, 
California. The whole country in that section of the state is generally well wooded. 
Our cottage was in the midst of fairly large forest trees, consisting of white fir, incense 
cedar and Jeffrey pine. One of the commonest birds about Fallen Leaf Lake is the 
Western Wood Pewee (Myiochanes richardsoni richardsoni), and one bird of this spe- 
cies had the habit of perching at the very top of a small incense cedar, about twenty-five 
to thirty feet from the ground, and darting off to catch flying insects, often making a 
single audible snap during the flight, apparently made wiith the bill at the instant of 
taking its prey. 
This bird made many spirited attacks upon Blue-fronted Jays (Cyanocitta stelleri 
frontalis). The attacks usually consisted of a series of stoops from some distance and 
my attention was always drawn to the performance by hearing the snapping noise made 
by the Pewee, which sounded the same as the noise made in seizing an insect, but re- 
peated rapidly during the attacks. It would not be safe to say that the noise was not 
made with the wings, but I think that it was not; yet I have a doubt on this point, 
which I was not able to clear up. Several times the Pewee was seen following flying 
Jays, but it was not clear whether the Jay was fleeing or the Pewee merely following. 
In these attacks the Pewee displayed the utmost dexterity, passing through the crowns 
of the trees without any perceptible loss of speed and dashing directly at, or very close 
to, the enemy. Its swiftness and accuracy of flight were not less admirable than its 
intrepid spirit. 
The reaction of the Jays to these attacks was to move off as if annoyed or dis- 
turbed rather than alarmed, but in some instances the Jays moved off fast enough to 
give the impression of rapid retreat. The attacks always persisted until the Jay or Jays 
attacked had left. Once I witnessed an attack upon two Jays and again upon three, 
neither the size nor the number of enemies seeming to deter the truculence of the 
diminutive aggressor. This Pewee was under observation for short periods every day 
for a week and nothing about its behavior indicated that it had a nest or young to pro- 
tect, and it seemed evident that the attacks on the Jays were entirely offensive.— 
CLAUDE GiGNouUx, Berkeley, California, September 17, 1921. 
Birds and Oil in Oklahoma.—Floating oil on the Pacific is not the only trap which 
birds must avoid if they would live; for in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas the same 
sorts of traps exist and annually destroy a considerable quantity of bird-life. 
In an oil field there is an inevitable waste of oil. This waste is caused by wild 
wells, leakage in tanks and pipe lines, cleaning out of old wells, tanks and lines and 
simple abandonment of non-merchantable oil. All of this waste collects in artificial 
ponds which lie along natural drainage courses and after a few weeks standing becomes 
thick and gummy through the evaporation of the lighter constituents. From the air 
