Jan. \go^ I 
THE CONDOR 
17 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
Voracity of Albatrosses. — In 1851 I went on a voyage in an Arctic whaling ship, the 
Uncas. When about sixty miles south of the Cape of Good Hope, we killed a large male sperm 
whale, tho he took down one of the boats which attacked him before he finally succumbed. A 
violent gale prevented us from saving all the oil from the whale, before about a week had passed, 
during which man j- wandering albatrosses (/?/(?;«(?</(?« and other sea birds feasted on 
the carcass which was along side of the ship. The screams of the albatrosses could be heard above 
the roar of the waves and the piping of the wind in the ship’s rigging. The albatrosses were rav- 
enous, astonishingly so. The ship’s cook took about a dozen pieces of blubber that would w'eigh 
from three to four pounds each, tied a stout string about three feet long to each, then knotted the 
free ends together and cast them among the albatrosses wducli were within a few feet of the ship. 
In a twinkling every piece of blubber was swallowed by a different bird, which upon realizing its 
predicament would start to 11}’ and turn a somersault, or set its wings deep into the water and 
back away from the piece of blubber it had swallowed. Their throats are capable of great ex- 
pansion, tho probably somewhat less so than that of the constrictors. 
After the cook had repeated this performance several times he varied the entertainment In- 
substituting about half a dozen pieces of rough triangular firewood for the blubber. These were 
as bulky as the blubber and as readily swallowed, and then disgorged again. — Lym.^n Beading, 
Stockton, Cat. 
Sterna paradis^a in Southern California. — While rowing about the tide-water flats 
back of Terminal Island, near San Pedro, Cal., with Mr. Geo. S. Chambliss, Sept. 13, 1902, look- 
ing after migrants, we saw a flock of about twenty-five terns resting on a mud flat. They flew up 
as we approached and Mr. Chambliss shot one from the edge of the flock, when they all circled 
about with loud cries, being joined by a number of California gulls (Larus catifoi niciis'). An- 
other specimen was taken. Upon examination they proved to be the Arctic tern [Sterna para- 
discea). On the return to the landing the same flock was again seen and an immature specimen 
secured. So far as I can learn the only other record of Sterna paradiscea from California is that 
noted in Grinnell’s Check-List of California Birds, from Monterey. — F r.\nk S. Daggett, Pasa- 
dena, Cat. 
The Number of Feathers in a Bird Skin. — Last summer I put in spare time in making 
a count of the feathers on a gull and a sparrow. As there is no prospect of being able to continue 
the same on other species I will give the record here. These are not estimates, but actual counts 
feather by feather. 
Ammodramiis sandwichensis . Body including tail feathers, 762; legs, 78; head and neck, 
710; wings, 349; total, 1899. 
Larus glaucescens. Head, 2620; neck, 803; back and interscapulars, 570; breast and flanks, 
880; wings, 721 + 748; legs and tail, 202; total, 6544. - Richard C. Mcgregor, Manila, P. 1 . 
Do Wild Birds Die Instantly? — Mr. Win. Earl Dodge Scott, in an article on birds in 
The Outlook of July 5, 1902, has made a statement that is somewhat remarkable in that it shows 
how differently Nature reveals herself to different observers, and especially remarkable because so 
emphatically backed up by his reference to hunters and others whose occupations teach them 
to observe. He states that not only do birds die instantly- — which term must be here used in a 
comparative sense, and is a little strong — when injured or afflicted with illness, but also that, in 
all his experience he has never come across a sick bird or animal in a wild state, nor met any one 
else who has done so. My attention was attracted by this statement, because, although Mr. 
Scott probably has- had much greater opportunities for observation than I, my experience has 
been very different from his. This may perhaps be accounted for by the mildness of climate or a 
lower proportion of bird enemies in the Pacific Coast collecting grounds, but it is a fact that oc- 
casionally sick or suffering birds and animals are to be found in California. For example, I have 
found dead seabirds along the shore, with no signs of their having been injured, in a greatly 
emaciated condition showing that they had suffered for some time before death. I have shot land 
birds that were wofully thin and weak, and have even taken one or two that were so afflicted with 
some cutaneous disease that it seemed advisable not to handle them. The California Jack 
rabbit suffers to a great extent from lumps caused by a parasite, and these are sometimes so large 
and weaken the animal to such a degree that it can hardly get out of one’s way. 
Besides eye witnesses who can verify some of these observations of my own there must be 
others who have had similar experiences, and consequently Mr. Scott’s statement can not be ac- 
cepted as an absolute rule. — Joseph Mah.ei.ard. 
