Mar., 1919 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 87 
Notes on the Behavior of Pintail Ducks in a Hailstorm.—On October 20, 1918, I 
was hunting ducks on the Rio Grande south of Las Lunas, New Mexico. I was sitting in 
my blind on a sandbar, with some dead ducks set out as decoys, when a very severe 
nailstorm set in. During the thick of the storm I discovered that a flock of about forty 
Pintail Ducks (Dafila acuta) had settled among my decoys not twenty yards distant. 
Hach bird was facing toward the storm, and each had his head and bill pointed almost 
vertically into the air. The flock presented a very strange appearance, and I was puz- 
zled for a moment as to the meaning of the unusual posture. Then it dawned on me 
what they were doing. In a normal position the hailstones would have hurt their sensi- 
tive bills, but pointed up vertically the bill presented a negligible surface from which 
hailstones would naturally be deflected. The correctness of this explanation was later 
proven by the fact that a normal position was resumed as soon as the hail changed into 
a slow rain. 
Has any other observer ever noted a similar performance in this or other species 
of ducks, or in any other birds?—Atpo LeEopoLp, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 22, 
1918. 
Unusual Occurrences of Bendire Thrasher, Forked-tailed Petrel and Western Gos- 
hawk.—In his Distributional List of the Birds of California, under Bendire Thrasher 
(Toxostoma bendirei) Dr. Grinnell says ‘‘no verification” of the Palm Springs record is 
now to be obtained. The specimen upon which this record was based is now no. 1507 in 
the collection of the San Diego Natural History Museum. It was taken April 8, 1885. 
On December 23, 1918, as I Was walking along the beach at Ocean Beach, California, 
looking among the drift marking the high tide line for dead fulmars, which occasion- 
ally wash ashore there, I found a Forked-tailed Petrel (Oceanodroma furcata). The place 
was within the city limits of San Diego. I believe this is the southernmost record for 
this species up to this time. The skin is no. 2031 of the Natural History Museum. As 
this was the first specimen of this species that I had handled I looked it up rather care- 
fully. In reading Ridgway’s description in his Manual of North American Birds I find 
that he divides the family into two subfamilies, Procellariinae with 13 secondaries, in 
which he places the genus Oceanodroma; and Oceanitinae with 10 secondaries. My fur- 
cata has but ten secondaries in each wing. The bird was in poor condition, but the flight 
feathers seem to be all there. Our O. melania and O. socorroensis appear to have 13 sec- 
ondaries. Someone having the opportunity to examine fresh specimens of furcata should 
count the secondaries. : 
A Western Goshawk (Astur atricapillus striatulus) was shot by Rudolph Wueste 
at the Lower Otay Reservoir (about five miles north of the Lower California line) on 
November 9, 1916. It is now in the collection of the Natural History Museum of San 
Diego. FRANK STEPHENS, Natural History Museum, San Diego, California, January 18, 
1919. 
The Sandhill Crane in Northeastern California——On September 30, 1906, when 
studying the animals and plants in American Valley, not far from the town of Quincy, 
I was suddenly startled by the unmistakable rasping cry of a Sandhill Crane. It was 
loud and clear and came from the willow-bordered meadows near where I was standing, 
but the bird kept hidden by the tall bushes so that I was unable to actually see it. How- 
ever, since there is no other bird whose note could possibly be mistaken for that of the 
Sandhill Crane, there can be no question as to the record. And as the date was too early 
for the arrival of migrants from the north, there is little room for doubt that the bird 
had bred on these meadows. 
The absence of recent records in the splendid work on The Game Birds of Cali- 
jornia, by Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer, the latest being Henshaw’s for 1878 and Town- 
send’s for 1887, impels me to record the above note. 
And while on the subject of Sandhill Cranes in California, it may be worth while 
to mention that on November 12, 1904, while witnessing an elk drive at Buttonwillow 
Ranch, at the southern end of San Joaquin Valley, I saw half a dozen Sandhill Cranes 
flying over. The people at the ranch told me that the Cranes would be common a little 
later, and that in the winter they were very destructive to sprouting grain.—C. Harr 
MERRIAM, Washington, D. C., January 29, 1919. 
