Mar., 1922 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 65 
lend variety. A more thorough investigation of this field would be worth while, for I 
have reason to believe that several species of northern ducks breed there, and breed at 
a much later season than in our country. On November 20 (1909) I found a brood of 
young Shovellers (Spatula clypeata) unable to fly, and the natives told me that hun- 
dreds of ducks nested there, among them Gadwall, Dusky, Sprig, Shoveller, and Cinna- 
mon Teal. 
The South Pacific, where I am living now, is a poor place from the point of view 
of a lover of the Anatidae. We have only one duck in the islands south of the Line 
(though I know a man who claims that Shovellers come to Penrhyn Island every year 
about Thanksgiving time, and remain for two or three months), called Anas superciliosa, 
and reminding one of a small dull-colored Gadwall. Three migrating waders reach 
Tahiti every year from the north: The Pacific Golden Plover (Charadrius dominicus 
fulvus), the Wandering Tattler (Heteractitis incanus), and the Bristle-thighed Curlew 
(Numenius tahitiensis).—C. B. Norpuorr, Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands, November 
e219? 7. 
Second Occurrence of the Yakutat Song Sparrow in California——On September 
19, 1915, Mr. Laurence M. Huey took a specimen of Melospiza melodia caurina Ridgway, 
at Fortuna, Humboldt County, California. The bird is a female (no. C 281, coll. Donald 
R. Dickey), and becomes, I believe, the second recorded instance of the capture within 
the state of this rare winter visitant to the northwest coast of California. 
The bird was taken on a brushy hillside in the immediate vicinity of Fortuna, and 
at a distance, therefore, of several miles from the sea. In this connection, it is inter 
esting to note the wide departure from normal in the associational behavior exhibited 
during migration by this individual. In its breeding range and on its winter ground 
the bird is essentially a “beach-comber”. This has been clearly indicated by the single 
winter capture heretofore recorded for California (Grinnell, Condor, xu, 1910, p. 174), 
and by the Oregon experience of Shelton (Condor, xvi, 1915, p. 60), and the Alaskan 
notes from Admiralty Island given by H. S.-Swarth (Conder, xtv, 1912, p. 73). Here, on 
the contrary, it was found far inland in the characteristic habitat of the host of Town- 
send Fox Sparrows that were coming in at the time from the north, and in an assccia- 
tion quite distinct from that of the beach. / 
Dr. Joseph Grinnell and Mr. H. S. Swarth have kindly compared the specimen 
with the birds from more northern stations that are now in.their care at the Museum 
of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California.—DonaLp R. Dickry, Pasadena, California, 
December 22, 1921. 
Rufous Hummingbird Tragedy.—On April 24, 1920, Mrs. Stoner found in the back 
yard a male Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus), badly. stunned and fluttering on 
the ground beneath the clothesline, with which no doubt it had collided. The line was 
one of the continuous wire lines working on a pulley at each end, and quite possibly 
in trying to avoid one of the wires it flew into the other, some ten or twelve inches 
above or below. It was taken into the house, but lived only a few minutes. The outer tail 
feathers measure 3 mm. in width, and the next to middle tail feathers are notched. The 
skin was preserved. This incident cites a date of the northward migration in this locality, 
as well as one of the many hazards birds have to contend with.—EMeErson A. STONER, 
Benicia, California, December 31, 1921. 
Wintering of the Nuttall Sparrow in Los Angeles County.—Because of the paucity 
of records of this species from Los Angeles County, California, it may be of interest to 
note that this sparrow was found to be fairly common in Placerita Canyon, near New- 
hall, during December, 1920, and January, 1921. 
Mr. E. J. Brown and the junior writer spent several odd days collecting in this 
locality with the following results: December 15, 1920, we took four adult specimens of 
Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli and saw several more at sufficiently close range to make 
us fairly sure that they were of the same form; December 30, 1920, we took three addi- 
tional adults and saw what we were confident were two more; January 24, 1921, we took 
another adult. 
