May. 1903 [ 
THE CONDOR 
81 
ly cadmium yellow on the forehead. The wing is shorter (2.15 in. = 54.5 mm.) and rounded 
(7-6-8-9-5,610.). indicating a more sedentry bird. Parallel cases are afforded by the yellow warb- 
lers, savanna sparrows, fox sparrows, and other birds breeding through many degrees of latitude 
along the Pacific Coast. — Joseph Grinneee. 
Sterna Mmndo at San Francisco. — It is with great pleasure that I am enabled to add 
one more to our already long list of Pacific Coast birds. On January 19, 1903, my friend Mr. 
Ernest Werder while roaming over the hills at the Presidio, San Francisco, found what was to 
him a strange bird and wishing to know what it was forwarded it to me. I have identified it as 
the common tern, Sterna hirundo. This is so far as I am aware the first record from the coast. 
The bird when taken was alive, but in a very emaciated condition and died shortly after being 
found. It was probably hurled to the earth while in a weakened condition by the severe storms 
which occurred about that time. — C. Litti.ejohn, Redwood City, Cal. 
A Few Notes from Texas. — During the last few years I have had the pleasure of finding 
many curious nesting places of some of the smaller birds of this section of the state, a few of 
which I will here recall. In the spring of ’97 while collecting in Caldwell county, I found a nest 
of the Baltimore oriole, placed about fifteen feet above the ground, tightly woven in the leaves of 
a niesquite and built entirely of horse-hair. While I was sitting under the tree resting a male Baird 
wren flew out of the nest and at once began pouring forth his notes of distress and probably wanted 
to know who was invading his domain. I had not the least idea of the wren having a nest in the 
old oriole’s nest, but my inquisitiveness forced me to inspect, so I immediately ascended and to 
my great surprise I found it to contain a large well built nest of the Baird wren and five eggs. 
It is not of uncommon occurrence to find the nests of this w'ren in tin cans and old buckets and 
in several instances it has been found nesting in the pockets of old garments that had been placed 
in the barn and outhouses. 
Mr. Harry J. Kofahl has taken the eggs of the scissor-tailed flycatcher {Milvulus forficatus) 
from the light towers in the city of Austin and I have also found this species nesting on tele- 
phone poles. 
On the 20th of June 1901, a set of two eggs of the mourning dove {Zenaidiira rnacroura) 
were taken from the huge nest of a caracara. The dove unquestionably had a comforable home. 
Mr. Edward Kascli of Caldwell county once found a nest of the Texan bob-white, which con- 
tained six eggs of a quail and three of the common chicken. The nest was deserted. 
Another incident of curious nesting sites is that of a red-bellied woodpecker ( Melanerpes 
carolinus) that had built its nest about eighteen inches above the ground, the bottom of the 
cavity being level with the ground. — A. E. SchuTze. 
The First Occurrence of the Kingbird in Austin During the Breeding Season. — 
On April 7, 1902, while walking along the outskirts of town, a strange bird flew up from the 
path and lit in a neighboring tree. I at once noted it down as a new arrival. I did not see this 
bird again until May 20, when it was in company with another of the same species. One was 
sitting on a telephone wire and the other was in a fork of a large live oak tree. When it flew 
away I saw that they had begun to construct a nest in the fork. Some string and a few sticks 
were evidence of same. Each day as I went by the tree (for it lay directly in my path to town), 
one of the birds was always there busily w'orking. On June ist I climbed up to the nest, which 
was at the extremity of a slender limb, and appeared to be complete. While I was near the nest 
both birds stayed in the vicinity and even fluttered around my head. While they were near me 
I had a good view of them and at once identified them as kingbirds. On June 8 I again visited 
the nest and it contained two eggs. Leaving these I returned on June ii and still there were 
only the two eggs. Thinking that this was their completment I secured the nest, which was 
difficult to reach. It was built very firmly in the fork, and composed of twigs, string, cotton, 
bark, weeds and rags, lined with hair, cotton and feathers. The eggs were identically the same 
as a set which I obtained from Rhode Island with exception of the size which is slightly less. — 
H. jtoFAHL, Austin. Texas. 
Pigmy Owl in. Town. — The capture of a pygmy owl {Glaucidiutu gnoma) in the streets of 
American Fork,*Utah, a few days ago excited some interest but was not the first occasion of its 
kind. Two or three j'ears ago I had one similiarly caught (by a bo)^ with his hands) and on dis- 
section I found it literally gorged with English sparrows. I have never discovered a nest of these 
owls but the bird is not uncommon among us in winter and is attracted in town by the most 
natural thing in the world — its food. — H. C. Johnson, American Fork, Utah. 
