May, 1922 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 95 
This gull also seems to be unfortunate in the records of its occurrence, distribu- 
tion, and nesting. The latest A. O. U. Check-list gives the correct distribution with the 
exception of the Colorado record, now known to be an error; but Ridgway has since 
then perpetuated the impossible record, first made by Fannin (Check List of British 
Columbia Birds, 1891, p. 4) of the breeding of Larus occidentalis in the Similkameen 
Valley, British Columbia—a locality which no gull would nest in, a narrow rocky gash in 
the mountains. 
All Fannin’s “occidentalis”, so labeled by him on the bases of the stands of his 
mounted birds, were simply Larus argentatus. This, in all the harbors of British Colum- 
bia, being the next commonest gull to Larus glaucescens, he assumed it was the Western 
Gull—the common gull of the west. Many other observers seem to have made a similar 
mistake. They took the presence of the Western Gull for granted, a sort of ground pat- 
tern on which to work in the records of the other species. These last they identified; 
the “Western Gull” was assumed. In all my coastal voyages on various craft extending 
back for about thirty-five years I have never seen the Western Gull north of Cape Flat- 
tery, not even among the flocks following the steamers on Puget Sound—and I have 
always been keenly on the lookout for it. Once you round Cape Fiattery, it at once 
becomes the most conspicuous gull. 
There are only three records for British Columbia, a molting adult taken by 
Spreadborough on the south end of Vancouver Island, and two taken at Comox on the 
eastern shore of that island. The latter are both adults, one being of the light mantled 
type and the other the dark type so common in California, “Larus occidentalis livens”’ 
of Dwight. The first of these gave me an idea as to how the “yellow” feet of the West- 
ern Gull may have originated. When I shot it I noted that the feet were rosy flesh 
color. As it lay on the thwart of the boat in front of me, one foot was elevated, the 
other hung down. As the blood drained from the tissues the color of the elevated foot 
turned from rosy flesh to yellowish white, not ‘‘yellow”’ by any means, but what might 
possibly have passed for cream color of a very pale shade, the other foot remaining as 
in life. 
The correct record of the colors of all soft parts is of the primest importance in 
the Laridae, where so many closely allied species have feet of very different colors. The 
two black-backed gulls of western Europe, Larus marinus and L. fuscus, can readily be 
told apart in life by the feet alone, the former having them flesh colored and the latter 
yellow. The many false records for the Kittiwake on the Pacific Coast would never have 
been made if the color of the feet had been looked up.—ALLAN Brooks, Okanagan Land- 
ing, B. C., March 3, 1922. 
Waterfowl Caught in Fish Nets.—On February 28, 1922, while driving along the 
shores of Tillamook Bay, Oregon, with Deputy Game Warden Geo. Russell, an adult male 
White-winged Scoter (Oidemia deglandi) was seen struggling in a salmon net in which 
it had become entangled. The net was set in about five feet of water. On being ques- 
tioned the fisherman told me that during the past fall he had caught several each of 
loons, scoters and wild ducks in his salmon nets.—STANLEY G. JEWETT, Portland, Oregon, 
March 10, 1922. 
Further Record of Savannah Sparrow in California*.—Mr. C. I. Clay, in THE Con- 
por, vol. 19, 1917, p. 68, published a record of the occurrence in Humboldt County, of the 
Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis savanna). This bird was identified by 
Dr. Joseph Grinnell of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California, and con- 
stituted the first published record for the state. 
During the field work of 1921 two sparrows were taken at Kneeland Prairie, Hum- 
boldt County, California, by Mr. Chester C. Lamb and myself, the identity of which I did 
not like to be too positive about without further professional opinion. These were sub- 
mitted to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, and pronounced by Mr. H. 8S. Swarth as 
being typical Passerculus sandwichensis savanna of southeastern Alaska. These two 
specimens were taken on September 29, 1921, in company with some of the Dwarf. Marsh 
Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis brooksi Bishop). 
Two specimens of this genus were taken by Mr. C. Littlejohn and myself at Re- 
*Contribution No. 135 from the California Academy of Sciences. 
