May. 1903 I 
THE CONDOR 
79 
FROM FIELD AND STUDT 
Hawaiian Birds in the Crater of Kilauea. — While spending some days at the Volcano 
House last October making a survey and sketch model of Hawaii’s famous volcano, Kilauea, for 
the Bishop Museum, I was much interested to find that certain of the Hawaiian birds were utterly 
disregarding the power of nature and the presence of man and were to be found here in the very 
home of Madam Pele, the goddess of volcanoes. On the north side of the crater are a number of 
fault blocks of great size which descend step-like one after another, forming an easy descent to 
the floor of the crater. All of this locality is more or less thickly wooded chiefly with native 
Ohea. It was in this quiet retreat that the birds had taken up their abode. I noted during my 
stay the following species, all inside the crater proper. Phaethon lepturus was seen a number of 
times; on one occasion circling about over the pit of Halemaumau, where eight hundred feet be- 
low it was the burning lake of liquid lava. Buteo solitarius was seen on two occasions, and 
Chasiempis sandvicensis, Acridotheres tristis (introduced), Vestiaria coccinea, Himatione san- 
guinea, Chlorodrepanis virens, Oreomystis mana, and Phceornis obscura were all seen on more 
than one occasion. — W m. Alanson Bryan, Bishop Museum, Honolulu^ H. /. 
Ctiriotis Trait of TMck-billed Sparrow. — Many years ago I took a nest and four fresh 
eggs of the thick-billed sparrow {Passerella iliaca megarhyncha) from a bush of Ceanothiis cor- 
dulatus and secreted it in a sparse growth of “mountain misery” {Chamcebatia foliolosa) forty or 
fifty feet from where I had found it. In an hour or two I returned for the nest which I found, but 
the eggs were gone. I happened to see one of them two or three feet from the nest in a line with 
its former site, and following that line I found them all. One was directly under the place from 
which I had taken it, one was nearly there, and the other was not more than twenty feet from it. 
I inferred that the parent birds had rolled them on the ground, which they could easily have 
done, as the course was free from any great obstacles, and was gradually descending. — Lyman 
Belding. 
Dendroica auduboni a Raisin ®ater. — I have found a new trait in the Audubon war- 
bler which may be of interest to Condor readers, namely, a taste for sweets. There is a large 
amount of raisins on the trays stacked up in the tray shed of the packing house here and for sev- 
eral days they have been a great attraction to the birds, so much so that it has been necessary to 
keep a man constantly in attenadnce to shoot them and drive them away. The other morning I 
saw a flock of fully 200 birds — mostly Audubon warblers — around the shed and they seemed to go 
wild over the fruit, and as fast as they were driven from one side of the shed would fly round to the 
other. Every bird shot that I examined had the bill sticky for its whole length. The amount of 
damage done was considerable. Among the birds that had been killed I found one Arkansas 
kingbird, several bluebirds and house-finches, but the warblers were at the rate of about five to 
one of the other species. I do not know if this is a common trait of the Audubon warbler else- 
where, but it is certainly new to me.— C. S. Sharp, Escondido, Cal. 
Concerning Spotted ®ggs of the Tark Btinting. — I have had some inquiry lately for 
“eggs of the lark bunting which are marked” and I would state: that from my register I find I 
am responsible for 47 sets and in the lot there has been but two sets of spotted eggs. The marks 
are not many, nor very large, but sufficient to make a pretty effect. They are of a reddish brown 
and mostly about the larger end of the egg. Some eggs have a few spots scattered from end to 
end. There is also the “under markings” and a few wavy lines of color, “blackbird style.” The 
spots will not smear while cleaning the egg, and at this late date they cannot be scrubbed off with 
warm water and soap. One of these sets I am keeping from the sunlight in my cabinet, and the 
other is safe in the case of J. H. Flanagan, Providence, R. I. I have had many eggs of the lark 
bunting and mountain bluebird, which could not be distinguished from each other. — Fred M. 
Dilde, Longmont, Colo. 
The Wood Ibis Near San Bernardino. — One afternoon in the early summer of 1891, a 
friend and myself came upon a flock of eight wood ibises ( Tantalus loculator) feeding in a damp 
field about midway between San Bernardino and Highland. They flew away at our approach and 
disappeared toward the northwest. 
On June 5, 1902, Mr. Stanley Whitlock and I saw three Tantalus loculator flying about in 
this same locality. We shot one for identification. Thence for about a month they became very 
numerous here, as many as twenty-two being seen in a single flock. They fed mostly in the 
creek bottoms, and occasionally a flock would be seen circling high in the air for a half-hour at 
the time. With the coming of July they gradually disappeared. These are the only wood ibises 
I have ever seen here, although I have lived here for many years. — J. B. Feudge, Highland, Cal. 
