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26 THE CONDOR Vol. XXIV 
seen with both male and female in attendance on the young brood. But after a lifetime 
spent among wild ducks I have yet to see the first indication of any solicitude for the 
young on the part of the male of any species. 
In the case of the Buffle-head the males have totally disappeared (apparently all 
leave the country entirely) before the first broods of young are seen.—ALLAN BROOKS, 
Okanagan Landing, British Columbia, November 25, 1921. 
The Black Vulture in Colorado.—On October 8 or 9, 1921, two young schoolboys, 
Richard Harvey and a boy named Baer, captured alive, on the foothills near Boulder, an 
adult male Black Vulture (Coragyps wrubu wrubu), breaking its wing. They tied it in 
a neighbor’s yard to keep it alive until the University of Colorado Museum preparator 
returned from a short trip, but the neighbor turned it loose just out of town. A few 
days later two other boys, Elvin Watson and James Mitchell, found it dead in a ditch 
and brought it to the Museum, where its skin is now preserved. So far as I know 
there is no published record of this species for Colorado, and it is particularly interest- 
ing to find the first one for the state so far north. In 1900 Professor W. W. Cooke, in 
his Second Appendix to The Birds of Colorado (page 204), stated that the Black Vulture 
“has been taken in Western Kansas and probably will some time be found as a rare 
summer visitant in Southeastern Colorado”; but Boulder is 270 miles northwest of the 
southeastern corner of the state.-—Junrus HrENpERSON, University of Colorado, Boulder, 
October 25, 1921. 
A Winter Record of the Kern Red-wing.—An adult male Red-winged Blackbird 
(cf. C 590, collection of D. R. Dickey) taken by van Rossem near Corona, Riverside 
County, on December 8, 1915, is strictly comparable with breeding specimens from 
Walker Basin, Kern County, and indicates a possible winter range for the race Agelaius 
phoeniceus aciculatus. The bill measurements are as follows: Culmen from base 25.9 
millimeters (plus about 1 mm. broken off); bill from nostril 17.5 (broken as above); 
gonys 16.0; width at base 9.5; depth at base 9.5. This specimen was submitted to Mr. 
Joseph Mailliard, who concurs with us in our determination of its status. 
During a recent trip in Kern County, two days (August 31 to September 1, 1921) 
were spent at Walker Basin, but not one red-wing was seen. Neither were any in evi- 
dence along the Kern River between Onyx and Isabella, where the types of aciculatus 
were taken. This would argue a departure from the breeding grounds immediately after 
the nesting season. Just what the winter range of this form is will probably not be as- 
certained for some time. The total number of individuals probably does not anywhere 
nearly reach a thousand. Such a number would form a very small proportion of the 
swarms of red-wings wintering in the lowlands and the taking of one would be very much 
a matter of luck.—D. R. Dickry and A. J. van Rossem, Pasadena, California, November 
0, SEGRE 
Bird Fatalities Resulting from a Shipwreck.—During the night of October 25, 
1918, the Canadian Pacific Steamer “Princess Sophia’ was wrecked with total loss of 
life, on Vanderbilt Reef, Lynn Canal, Alaska, some forty miles north of Juneau. Quan- 
tities of heavy fuel oil escaping covered the water for miles about, finally settling on 
the beaches. It is the writer’s theory that the great loss of life, some 343 persons, was 
largely occasioned by the escaping oil. 
When patrolling the shores of Admiralty Island and adjacent waters in a small 
steamer on October 28, looking for bodies from the wreck, a Murre (Uria troille califor- 
nica) was seen swimming towards the vessel, occasionally assisting its feet with its 
wings. On coming close it was seen that its breast was heavily saturated with oil, and 
the wings and other parts to only a lesser degree. The bird came to within a few feet 
of the boat, which was then drifting, frequently raising itself on the water, shaking it- 
self, and flapping its wings in efforts to get rid of the oil, and occasionally preening its 
feathers with its beak. The bird seemed not only devoid of fear but actually to wish 
companionship or a stable place to rest. Threatening movements only caused it to dive 
a few feet away, barely under the surface of the water, which gave excellent opportunity 
to observe the use of the wings in assisting the feet in the diving. It was finally killed 
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