Jan., 1919 39 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
The Costa Collection of Birds.—In The Condor for May, 1918, pages 114-116, Dr. 
T. S. Palmer has carefully reviewed the early history of Calypte costae, and ends with 
the phrase, “The Costa collection of hummingbirds, the fate of which is now unknown.” 
Adolphe Boucard in his “Genera of Humming Birds,’ London, 1893-1895, under Calypte 
Costae, page 5, states: “This fine species was dedicated to Marquis Costa de Beaure- 
gard, who was a very enthusiast[ic] collector, and had in his time one of the finest col- 
lection[s] of Humming Birds. . . . I bought his collection in 1878, and I found among 
many rare species, what I consider as the types, male and female of this species.” 
Boucard, who was one of the ablest of French ornithologists and the last of the 
great natural history agents who made Paris their headquarters in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, moved to London I think in 1889, where I frequently saw him in the years 1889- 
1891, at his natural history agency in High Holborn. He made two notable donations of 
the greater part of his ornithological collection to the Paris Museum, the first I think in 
1895, and the last in 1904, a few months before his death. It is probable the supposed 
types of Calypte costae were in the first donation, as Boucard had then finished his 
“Genera of Humming Birds.” 
In the Atlas, ‘Voyage de la Frégate la Vénus,” Bourcier’s types are figured 
(Oiseaux, pl. 2, figs. 1, 2), in colors from a painting of the male and female by Oudart.— 
J. H. Fremine, Toronto, Ontario, October 25, 1918. 
The Wilson Phalarope in the San Diegan Region.—An adult male of the Wilson 
Phalarope (Steganopus tricolor) was taken at Nigger Slough on September 16, this year 
(1918). The species has been recorded from Santa Barbara at sea level, otherwise its 
occurrence in the low country of the San Diegan region is quite worthy of note. The 
bird was alone, though Northern Phalaropes came and went from time to time. The 
plumage is the quiet gray of winter with some persisting wing quills that were worn. 
The testes were well defined but shrinking in size. This completes the roster of the 
American phalaropes that I have taken this September in the low country of this region. 
—LOoYE Miter, State Normal School, Los Angeles, California, September 23, 1918. 
Nesting of the Western Willet in California—In a recent conversation the Editor 
of Tur Conpor called my attention to the fact that there is only one definite record of 
the breeding of the Western Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus inornatus) within the 
state of California. This is based upon sets of eggs collected by N. R. Christie, near 
Beckwith, Plumas County, many years ago. it, therefore, seems well worth while to 
record the taking of additional eggs of this bird within the state. 
During June and July, 1918, Dr. Barton W. Evermann, Mr. Joseph R. Slevin and 
myself made a long collecting trip by automobile, covering some 1800 miles, through 
northern California and southern Oregon. In early June we spent several days at a par- 
tially flooded mountain meadow known as Grasshopper Meadow or Grasshopper Lake. 
This is situated in Lassen County about five miles from EHagle Lake. 
Grasshopper Lake is very shallow. The relative proportion of lake and meadow 
varies much from time to time, according as the season is one of more or less moisture. 
Together they cover many hundred acres. At the time of our visit the immediate shores 
of the lake were wide mud flats with a scattering, sprawling growth of a thick-stemmed, 
ragged, more or less vine-like ‘“‘red-weed”’. Farther from the lake were meadows of 
sedges and grasses and a wide belt of yellow primroses, and then rolling hills covered 
with sage-brush. 
As we reached the mud flats a number of large birds with very conspicuous white 
wing-patches rose in the air and, with loud cries, came driving toward us, passed, wheeled 
and came again and again, in very much the manner of an Avocet. There seemed to be 
no reason to doubt that they were the Western Willet, but, to make identification cer- 
tain, one was shot. There seemed to be about six or eight or perhaps ten pairs here, and 
later we saw four or five more pairs in another part of the meadow several miles away. 
We succeeded in finding five nests. On June 1 Dr. Evermann found two nests, with one 
and two fresh eggs, and on June 6 I found three nests, one empty, one with four broken 
