Nov., 1922 72s 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
The Capture of Water-fowl in Fish Nets.—The recent note by Mr. Stanley G. 
Jewett! on the accidental capture of a White-winged Scoter (Oidemia deylandi) in a 
Salmon net, is of particular interest in view of the fact that the Bureau of Biological 
Survey is giving attention to the use of nets to capture birds for banding purposes.* 
As stated in the paper referred to in the accompanying foot-note, several forms 
of net traps have been successfully used, among them being the well-known “fyke” 
net. This contrivance is made by covering a series of four ircn hoops, three to four 
feet in diameter, with cord webbing. When fully extended the hoops are about two 
feet apart, and the web cylinder thus produced is divided into two chambers by means 
of web funnels. The first of these has a large mouth while the second is much re- 
duced. Shcrt wings or guides of webbing are extended from the mouth of the trap and 
the whole afiair is held in place in shallow water by long stakes forced into the mud. 
In the marshes of the Illinois River these nets are used extensively for the cap- 
ture of carp, buffalo, and other fishes, an energetic fisherman frequently running a line 
of forty to fifty ‘“fykes’. The nets are placed in areas where large numbers of ducks 
gather to feed, and it is commcn to find half a dozen mallards or“pintails in a: single 
net. During March, 1922, while engaged in banding work in this region, I made a prac- 
tice of trying to beat the fisherman to the nets that were set in my neighborhood for 
the purpose of securing any ducks that might have been caught. Pintails were most 
frequently taken and it was noticeable that they were usually caught in flocks of four 
to six, indicating that they fed in small groups and were strongly inclined to ‘follow 
the leader”’. 
In this connection, mention may also be made of a recent “return” from a Buffle- 
head duck that was banded by Mr. Verdi Burtch, at Branchport, New Ycrk, on April 6, 
1922. Eleven days later (April 17) the bird was found entangled in a herring net in 
Georgian Bay, near Collingwood, Ontario. 
The problem of evolving suitable methods for the capture of diving ducks for 
banding purposes will still require considerable experimentation, but present indica- 
tions are that some form of a submerged net will prove most satisfactory. Such a de- 
vice will, of course, require an arrangement that will bring captured birds safely to the 
surface aiter they have entered the chambers or pockets of the trap.—FREDERIcK C. LIN- 
coLn, U. S. Biological Survey, Washington, D. C., August 14, 1922. 
Northward Range of the Gray Vireo in California——While on a short collecting 
trip as guest of Mr. A. Brazier Howell, I spent the afternoon of July 25, 1922, on the 
west slope of Walker Pass, which is in northeastern Kern County, California, at the 
southern end of the main high Sierra Nevada. The feature of the cccasion was my 
meeting with an adult pair of Gray Vireos (Vireo vicinior). The exact spot was on a 
steep, north-facing hillside within one-fourth mile south of “Jack’s Station” (now mere- 
ly a roadside camping place); altitude close to 4500 feet; life-zone Upper Sonoran, in a 
semi-arid phase of it. The birds were in sparse brush (Garrya, Kunzia, Artemisia tri- 
dentata, and Cercocarpus betulaefolius); and a digger pine and a pinyon both grew 
within one hundred feet of where they were discovered. 
I was first attracted by the broken, post-nuptially rendered song of the male— 
intermittent and sketchy, yet distinct encugh from the songs of other vireos to be rec- 
ognized at once. This male Gray Vireo was promptly shot. It proved to be in molt, 
with only two of the old tail-feathers remaining and with new feathers showing where 
old ones had fallen out, in the wings and in most of the body tracts. The weight of the 
bird was 12.5 grams. It is now catalogued as no. 43295 of the bird collection in the 
California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. 
A minute or two after shcoting the singing bird, I caught sight of the other bird 
which I concluded was the female of the pair. The only ncte she gave was a low harsh 
churr or shray, given now and then as she hopped slowly through the twiggery. From 
the bushes she went into the pinyon tree before mentioned, and thence into the digger 
1Condor, XXIV, May, 1922, p. 95. 
putin, eee. Ho, 3, July, 1922, pp. 322-334, pls, XI-XIV: “Trapping Ducks for 
Banding Purposes”, by Frederick C. Lincoln. 
