Mar., 1912 
73 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
Call Note of the Female California Quail. — In September, 1911, a stroll through 
the Belvedere garden was suddenly interrupted by the calling of Quail {Lophortyx c. cal't- 
foruica), and shortly four of these birds sailed across the road, scattering within a few 
feet of the observer. 
One bird lit on the bare, horizontal trunk of a small live-oak and in such a manner 
as to permit the noting of every plumage detail of an adult hen. A cock soon came strut- 
ting along the gravelled path and, properly posing himself, gave the familiar call of “all 
is well.” The supposed hen immediately replied in like manner, and in so doing not only 
assumed the call pose of the male, but also clearly showed the usual accompanying head 
and throat movements. The call was repeated several times, and the record is positive. 
A similar experience was enjoyed in the same garden a few years ago, and within thirty 
feet of the foregoing observation, but unfortunately the details of the record were lost in 
the conflagration of 1906. 
Were the females in question favored with individual vocal gifts or were they males 
in female attire? — John W. Mailliard. 
The Winter Range of the Yakutat Song Sparrow. — In a report on a collection 
of birds from the Sitkan district, Alaska, published by the writer (Birds and Mammals 
of the 1909 Alexander Alaska Expedition, Univ. Calif. Publ. Zook, vol. 7, 1911, pp. 90. 91) 
Mclospiza mclodia caurina was mentioned as a migrant in the region. This impression 
was conveyed by the sudden appearance of the birds at points where they had been ab- 
sent a few days before, their presence during a period of about three weeks, and their 
subsequent disappearance ; and I still believe that these particular birds were transients, 
probably from points farther south. 
Soon after the appearance of the paper referred to above, my companion on that 
trip, Mr. Allen Hasselborg, a resident of Juneau, expressed his belief to me, in a letter, 
that I was mistaken in my ideas, and that to his certain knowledge song sparrows remained 
through the winter on the beaches in the vicinity of Juneau and on the adjacent islands. 
In support of his statement he has just sent me, as a gift to the University of California 
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, eight song sparrows collected by himself. These were all 
taken on Admiralty Island: one at Gambier Bay, November 27, 1911, the others at Pybus 
Bay, one on December 9, three on December 10, and one each on December 11, 19, and 23, 
1911. 
In the accompanying letter he describes the beaches where the sparrows were found 
as of a limestone formation, worn full of little caves and crevices by the action of the 
water, and thus providing shelters for the birds. He asserts that on all such beaches in 
the region, song sparrows are to be found throughout the winter; as it happened, the 
points visited by us early in the season of 1909 did not possess such features, hence the 
absence of the birds. 
He writes that the sparrows were distributed singly along the beaches at intervals 
of about two hundred yards, were exceedingly fat, and had their stomachs filled with a 
mass of unrecognizable slimy matter from the beach. 
I'he eight birds collected (nos. 21292-21299, Univ. Calif. Mus. Vert. Zook) are all 
examples of the Yakutat Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia caurina). One of them in its 
brown coloration is not typical, varying decidedly in the direction of riifina; but the longer 
and more slender bill, larger size, and duller browns, all go to indicate a closer relation- 
ship to caurina. 
'khe facts thus far accumulated make it seem probable that the breeding song spar- 
row of the Sitkan district, Mclospiza ni. rufina, leaves the northern part of this region 
entirely in winter. Just how far north it does winter is not known. The Yakutat Song 
Sparrow (M. m. caurina) is shown to winter at least as far north as Juneau, and as it has 
recently been taken as far south as Humboldt Bay, California (see Grinnell, Condor xir, 
1910, 174) is, of course, to be looked for at all intermediate points. Its center of abun- 
dance during the winter months is not known. — H. S. Swarth. 
Unusual Nesting Date of Mourning Dove. — On December 5, 1911, while pruning 
an orange tree, 1 accidentally discovered a nest of Zcnaidura macroura carolincnsis con- 
taining two eggs too far advanced in incubation to save. One of the parent birds was 
