Nov., 1919 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 237 
(p. 515) will furnish a description of the method by which this bird extracts the food 
material from the bottom of ponds and rivers and from the muddy water. Analysis of 
the stomach of a specimen secured at Palo Verde, Imperial County, September 4, 1916, 
and contained in the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, shows the following food 
elements: 
10 seeds of the screw bean (Strombocarpus pubescens ) 
2 seeds mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) 
Parts of 4 water beetles (Cybister sp.) 
Finely comminuted vegetable material. 
The seeds were identified by W. L. McAtee and the beetles by E. C. Van Dyke. 
This food material is exactly what we might expect to find in the shallow water 
of the Colorado River. It is of interest that a bird with so large a bill, and with the 
bill lacking the sieve-like apparatus of a duck’s bill, can be so adept at sifting small par- 
ticles from the water.—Haro.p C. Bryant, Berkeley, California, July 1, 1919. 
The Occurrence of the Long-billed Curlew in Northwestern California.—In com- 
menting upon ‘The Game Birds of California” recently, Mr. H. E. Wilder brought to my 
attention some facts known to him, but not heretofore published, relative to the occur- 
rence of the Long-billed Curlew along the northwestern California coast. Mr. Wilder 
has generously urged me to put these facts on record, and furthermore has presented to 
the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology a specimen of the bird, taken at the mouth of the Eel 
River, Humboldt County, July 18, 1916. This bird (now no. 30708, Mus. Vert. Zool.) was 
secured for Mr. Wilder by Mr. Jack Kemp, of Ferndale, and this latter gentleman states 
that he has shot many of the same species. District Attorney A. W. Hill of Eureka, who 
spent his early years on the shores of Humboldt Bay, told Mr. Wilder that he had shot 
many of these curlew there. He said they often came early in the fall before the ducks 
had appeared. In October, 1918, he saw a flock of seven at the mouth of Eel River. 
Later, Mr. Wilder interviewed Mr. Frank Williams of the Russ-Williams Bank of 
Ferndale, who has spent much time hunting ducks and fishing for salmon along the lower 
Hel River. Mr. Williams stated that curlew have always been rather common though 
irregular visitors to that section. He said they usually occur in early fall, and commonly 
in small flocks; but at one time some years ago they came in great numbers, numerous 
flocks of 200 or more each being present. 
As to subspecies, the bird sent to this Museum by Mr. Wilder falls under the name 
Numenius americanus occidentalis, the Lesser Long-billed Curlew—this on the basis of 
measurements in comparison with the averages and extremes given by Oberholser (Auk, 
xXxxv, 1918, pp. 189, 193) and by Ridgway (Bds. N. and Mid. Amer., pt. vilI, 1919, pp. 391, 
394). The bird in question (no. 30708, Mus. Vert. Zool.) is marked “2”, but is so very 
small for this sex, even in occidentalis, that one is tempted to think it more likely a 
male. It measures, in millimeters: Wing 273; tail 99; exposed culmen 117; tarsus 85. 
Of course one example is insufficient evidence that all the curlew visiting the 
Humboldt Bay region are the Lesser. Further specimens are needed. In west-central 
California, the larger, Eastern Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus americanus) 
is the predominant race during the fall migration, as shown by the considerable number 
of specimens at hand.—J. GRINNELL, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of Cali- 
fornia, August 24, 1919. 
Additional Notes and Records from Colorado.—Since the publication in the Auk 
(xxxv, 1918, p. 236) of “Notes on Some Species New to the Colorado List of Birds’, the 
following occurrences have been brought to light, which supplement those referred to. 
All specimens upon which they are based are in the collections of the Colorado Museun: 
of Natural History. 
Gavia pacifica. The Colorado record of this species is based upon an immature 
female (C. M. N. H. no. 7003) from the Edwin Carter collection, taken in the vicinity of 
Breckenridge, Colo., Nov. 15th, 1887. I am indebted to Mr. A. C. Bent of Taunton, Mass., 
for assistance in making the determination. In referring to the specimen, he writes, in 
part:—“Its measurements are rather small for this species, but not too small fora young 
