Jan., 1922 SOME BIRDS OF ROOSEVELT LAKE, ARIZONA 25 
approaching to within sixty yards of one of them. This was within chance range of my 
20-gauge shotgun and, in fact, my gun was at my shoulder. But I did not pull the trig- 
ger, for here was one of the only two egrets on this bird sanctuary, possibly one of the 
only two in the state of Arizona, and they were probably breeding birds. These egrets, 
however, were exceedingly wary and usually remained well out on the mud flats where 
they were fairly safe. 
Nycticorax nycticorax naevius (Boddaert). Black-crowned Night Heron. Swarth 
(loc. cit., p. 54) considered the Black-crowned Night Heron less abundant on the lake 
than the Great Blue Heron, and reports seeing “perhaps 20 birds, all told.” My own 
observations, as recorded directly from my field reports, are: “The most abundant, 
though probably the least conspicuous, bird on the lake, usually nesting in living cot- 
tonwoods partly submerged in the water on the flats. About 120 pairs nested at the 
Tonto end of the lake (May 20-24) and about 80 pairs (May 26) at the Salt River end. 
Young in most cases were able to leave the nests and perch on branches, or fly. Some 
ten nests were seen in dead trees, all others being in trees bearing green leaves.” 
Fulica americana Gmelin. Coot. There were between ninety and one hundred 
Mud-hens on the Tonto end of the lake, but not one was noted at the Salt River end. A 
male, collected May 20, had very small testes and apparently was not breeding. 
Actitis macularia (Linnaeus). Spotted Sandpiper. <A single individuai of this 
species was seen on two occasions (May 20 and 22) on the shore near the mud flats at 
the Tonto end of the lake. 
Oxyechus vociferus (Linnaeus). Killdeer. Some six or eight Killdeer were ob- 
served on the mud flats at the mouth of Tonto Creek, May 22. 
Pandion haliaétus carolinensis (Gmelin). Osprey. Ospreys were seen daily (May 
19-29) near Rocsevelt Lake, where a dozen or more birds obtained food. 
Aluco pratincola (Bonaparte). Barn Owl. A Barn Owl was seen, May 20, perched 
peacefully amcng a colony of twenty-seven cormorant and eight great blue heron nests 
containing young, in the top of a dead cottonwood over thirty feet of water and 300 yards 
from the nearest shore. So far as I could observe, it had not disturbed the rookery in 
the least. | 
Bubo virginianus pallescens Stone. Western Horned Owl. A nest, containing two 
young fully one-third grown and able to perch on limbs of the tree near the nest, was 
located in the top of a partly dead cottonwood well out in the water at the Tonto end 
of the lake (May 20).. 
U.S. Biological Survey, Washington, D. O., September 29, 1921. 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
On the Occurrence of the Buffle-head at Eagle Lake.—The notes under the above 
caption by Milton S. Ray in the November Conpor require some comment. The bird in 
the first photograph is undoubtedly a female Buffle-head (Charitonetta albeola), the 
young ones following her are indefinite. The two downy young “Buffle-heads” in the 
other photograph (fig. 33) are obviously and emphatically American Mergansers (WMer- 
gus americanus), newly hatched. The markings on their heads together with the shape 
of their bills are both unmistakable, and quite unlike a downy Buffle-head. 
Young ducks frequently follow an adult of another species. I have seen a female 
Buffle-head and a female Barrow Golden-eye both guarding a single duckling of the 
former species and both equally solicitous. At another time I watched a newly hatched 
Spotted Sandpiper trotting after a Least Sandpiper while its own parent was a consid- 
erable distance away. 
Of course it is more than possible that the Buffle-head breeds in northeastern 
California, but unfortunately Mr. Ray’s record fails to prove this, nor does he seem to 
realize what an extraordinary phenomenon was before him when he saw both parents 
attending the young. In the case of very aberrant ducks like Hrismatura and Dendro- 
cygna the male parent may assist as in all the geese and swans; also I believe there 
have been instances of some southern ducks, the Cinnamon Teal for one, that have been 
