Jan., 1922 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 31 
ene call to another and back again. During the breeding season they do not seem to 
have any regular hunting ground, but when the young are grown they become solitary, 
and do not go very far from home. Although they are very plentiful and I have spent 
much time in observing them, I have never been able to find a nest, or the hole of a 
solitary individual. They make good pets, eating raw meat, or mice, and becoming 
quite tame. When irritated they make comical efforts at defence, throwing themselves 
on their backs, snapping their beaks and grasping with the claws. They are too small 
to be serious antagonists, however. One which I kept for some time would “sing”.— 
Paut Bonnot, Stanford University, California, November 7, 1921. 
Early Nesting of the Tricolored Blackbird and Mallard.—At Walker Basin, Kern 
County, California, on April 2, 1921, van Rossem made note of the following nestings 
which so far antedate anything published that a record of them is in order. 
Agelaius tricolor. Colony of about twenty pairs in an old dead tule patch. From 
one fresh to four eggs incubated were noted, and one female was seen carrying food, 
probably to small young. 
Anas platyrhynchos. Nest with eight apparently fresh eggs in a clump of grass 
near the small stream which winds about and through the meadow. 
These dates would be early even for the lowlands, but seem extraordinarily so 
for this mountain meadow where the temperature was close to freezing at night, and 
where several inches of snow fell on the night of the 3rd of April. D. R. Dickey and A. 
J. vAN RosseM, Pasadena, California, November 25, 1921. 
A Correction: Brewer Blackbird Not Occurring in Northern British Columbia.—In 
the Condor for March, 1919 (vol. 21, p. 33), under the title of The Summer Birds of 
Hazelton, British Columbia, I recorded the common nesting and the taking of two spe- 
cimens of the Brewer Blackbird (Huphagus cyanocephalus). At the instigation of Mr. 
H. S. Swarth, I recently re-examined these birds. They consist of an adult male and a 
young bird in post-juvenile plumage. The adult is worn and dull and shows more pur- 
ple reflection on the head than is usual in the Rusty Blackbird. The juvenile shows no 
indication at all of the rust so characteristic of the first winter plumage of that species. 
The measurements, however, are plain, and, in spite of superficial resemblances to cyano- 
cephalus, I am compelled to reconsider my first too hasty conclusion and re-identify both 
birds as Rusty Blackbirds (Huphagus carolinus). There is, therefore, at present no rec- 
ord of the Brewer Blackbird in that section of British Columbia. In extenuation of my 
apparent carelessness I would like to state that at the time of writing the above paper 
the Rusty Blackbird had not been recorded as breeding in the Province and its occur- 
rence there was unexpected.—P. A. TAVERNER, Ottawa, Ontario, November eal MOA 
A Pigmy Owl Bathing.—On September 28, 1921, while camping at the easterly end 
of Kneeland Prairie, Humboldt County, California, in company. with Mr. Chester C. 
Lamb, the latter came in from a tramp in the woods with the report that he had seen 
a Coast Pigmy Owl (Glaucidium gnoma grinnelli) taking a bath. He described the bird 
as standing on the edge of a small cattle trough beside the trail and going through the 
process of ablution in about the same manner as any other bird. The trough was full to 
the brim and the little owl was dipping and dabbling in the water, finally shaking itself 
and preening its feathers. Later the bird was secured and proved to be a male still in 
partial moult, with few but pin-feathers on the throat. 
Several ornithologists to whom I mentioned this matter said that they had never 
before heard of an owl bathing and had never accredited this bird with a desire for 
such a performance. Mr. Chase Littlejohn tells me, however, that at one time he had 
several Barn Owls (Tyto pratincola) in captivity for a short period and discovered that 
they were very fond of a bath. They were kept in a rather dark place to which thev 
quickly grew accustomed, soon becoming quite tame. He used to watch them a 200d 
deal, to study their habits and attitudes, and frequently saw them bathing in a large 
vessel of water maintained for their use. Apparently they bathed every day: for if sens 
were days in which he did not actually see them bathe he almost invariably noticed 
some sign of their ha ing done so either in the ay of wet fe 
, 
ge ; ‘ Ww athers, water on the floor, 
