Jan., 1920 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 39 
notes of the natural song of this species were given before its yoice broke into the un- 
natural one, but these preliminary notes were very faint and would not have been de- 
tected at any distance away. Certainly one would have guessed almost any other bird 
in the A. O. U. Check-list as the producer of these curious sounds rather than a Russet- 
backed Thrush. In fact, up to the moment of the solution of this problem, I had about 
made up my mind that the bird must be an extralimital escape from some cage. 
Soon after reaching the camp the next summer, that is, in June, 1919, I was 
greeted by this now familiar sound in the same place as it had been heard the year 
before, although the bird seemed to stay about a hundred yards higher up on the hill- 
side, for the most part, than in the previous year. Having Dr. Barton W. Evermann, 
Director of the Museum, California Academy of Sciences, as my guest for a few days 
during this stay at the Grove, I took particular pains to lead him to the bird’s favorite 
singing ground so that he, too, might hear this peculiar song and be witness thereto. 
While we did not catch sight of this bird in the act of singing, if such a combination of 
sound could be called by that name, he can bear witness to the fact that the song was 
most certainly unique. 
This bird assuredly returned to the same spot two years in succession, so why 
may not its mate have done so as well? 
In the second case of a bird’s return, it was seen again not only in the same 
locality but in the same bush. This bird was a Nuttall Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys 
nuttalli), in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, which had been particularly 
noticeable in the early part of 1919 from the fact that the auricular and malar regions 
were very decidedly paler than is usual with this species. As is the case with most of 
the birds in the Park, it was fairly tame, and in March and early April we would fre- 
quently see it in some bushes near the main entrance to the California Academy of Sci- 
ences on our way to and fro. After that it was lost sight of until one morning in Sep- 
tember, when it showed up again, but this time with the lighter colored spots almost 
pure white. While it is true that this species breeds in the Park, and that this indi- 
vidual may not have gone far away during its temporary absence from our pathway, the 
chances are equally good that it was one of those that winter in this latitude and breed 
farther north, as so many of this species do. This case is the reverse of the first one, in 
that the bird returned in the fall to its favorite spot, instead of in the breeding season, 
but if it returns to one spot at one season, why not to another spot at the other season 
of the year?—JosEPH MAaILLiIaRD, San Francisco, November 1, 1919. 
Clarke Nutcracker at Sea.—On the boat coming up from Lower California, in Sep- 
tember, what I took to be a Clarke Crow (Nucifraga columbiana) came on board some- 
where between Los Angeles and San Francisco and remained until we came into port. 
I noticed the bird in the morning after leaving Los Angeles, but some of the other pas- 
sengers said it came on board the evening before, when we were only a short distance 
out from that place. This is so far out of the normal range of this bird that I was much 
interested in speculating as to whence he came and whither he would eventually go. 
Will he find his way back again to the mountains?—G. F. Ferris, Stanford University, 
California, November 9, 1919. 
Nesting of Western Robin and Spotted Sandpiper.—Records of the finding of 
actual nests of the Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularia) in southern California are 
still unusual enough to be worthy of record. On August 1, 1919, near Kern Lake, Tu- 
lare County, and at an approximate altitude of 6800 feet, I found two nests containing 
four eggs each, situated under pieces of driftwood on sandbars in the river. These egg 
hatcaed next day. There were probably several broods raised in the vicinity as fully 
grown young were common, a fact indicating that the nests found by me were second 
sets. . 
I am not aware that the Western Robin (Planesticus migratorius propinquus) 
has ever been reported as breeding in the Lower Sonoran Zone. In June, at Visalia, 
Tulare County, I discovered two nests of this bird in oak trees, both containing young. 
Many adults were noted about the town during the summer months.—A. van RosseM, 
Los Angeles, California, October 22, 1919. 
