74 THE CONDOR Vol. XXI 
Egretta candidissima candidissima. Snowy Heron. One was seen in a rice field 
four miles east of Maxwell on August 21, and another west of Live Oak, on Butte Creek, 
August 24. A third bird was observed near Maxwell on September 8. In all of these 
cases these herons were in company with the larger Egrets. 
Lobipes lobatus. Northern Phalarope. On August 18 these birds were abundant 
in the region east of Maxwell, and remained fairly common in pools in the rice fields 
in the area between Maxwell and Willows until September 8. 
Ereunetes mauri. Western Sandpiper. Common near Maxwell from August 19 to 
October 3. 
Limosa fedoa. Marbled Godwit. Seen in small numbers east of Maxwell from 
September 5 to 8. 
Aluco pratincola. Barn Owl. A dead Barn Owl was found in a road near Maxwell 
on August 21, and another on October 2. Both had been killed by striking wires, rather 
an unusual accident with such night prowlers as these. Another Barn Owl was flushed 
from an oak west of Live Oak on August 24. On September 15, west of Gridley, one was 
seen circling low over a rice field in bright sunshine, about three in the afternoon, and 
another was shot in a grove. The birds were apparently fairly common in occurrence 
here. Grinnell (Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, p. 69) has recorded them in the Sacra- 
-mento Valley only as far north as Woodland. 
Chordeiles virginianus hesperis. Pacific Nighthawk. One observed near Live Oak 
on August 26. 
Sayornis sayus. Say Phoebe. One seen near Stonyford on October 5. 
Pica nuttalli. Yellow-billed Magpie. This interesting species was common among 
the oaks in a narrow area near the center of the Sacramento Valley between Marysville 
and Tehama. It was not unusual to find them in flocks of a dozen or more. Several 
were taken. 
Biological Survey, Washington, D. C., January 15, 1919. 
NOTES FROM THE FEATHER RIVER COUNTRY 
AND SIERRA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA 
By JOSEPH MAILLIARD 
ASTING around for a profitable locality in which to pass a good portion 
of the spring months of 1918, the region around Blairsden, on the Feath- 
er River, Piumas County, California, seemed to combine many desirable 
qualities together with the additional attraction of having been little, if ever, 
worked over from an ornithological standpoint. On this basis of reasoning 
several weeks were passed in this vicinity, between Mohawk, just across the 
river from Blairsden, at an elevation of 4800 feet, and Johnsville, farther up in 
the mountains, at 5200 feet altitude. As the summer approached, the base of 
operations was shifted to the Sierra Valley, Sierra County, altitude 5000 feet, 
where stays were made at Loyalton and Campbell’s Hot Springs (about a mile 
from Sierraville). These two places are at the edge of the open Sierra Val- 
ley, where sagebrush and pine forest meet, and not more than fifteen or twenty 
miles from the Nevada state line. 
Nothing startling was expected from this trip, and the results were mostly 
only corroborative of what one would naturally anticipate finding in such loeal- 
ities as those visited. Yet there are a few items in my notebook that appear to 
be worthy of recording. 
Chaetura vauxi. Vaux Swift. Noted at Campbell’s Hot Springs, one and a half 
