20b 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVII 
It may seem a trivial matter to make a correction of range involving a matter of 
only fifteen miles, in a species as wide ranging as the Western Gull, but the point is 
that the bird is evidently strictly a maritime and littoral species, seldom or never wan- 
dering far from the sea. As my own published statement seems to be the only definite 
one ascribing the bird to an inland point in southern California, and as I have for years 
been satisfied of its inaccuracy, it seems advisable that a correction be made. 
Common Tern. Willett (Pacific Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 16) has recorded 
the Artie Tern ( Sterna paradisaea) from Los Angeles County on the basis of three spe- 
cimens collected by Mr. F. S. Daggett (see Condor, v, 1903, p. 17) and one by myself. 
Having recent occasion to refer to my specimen I found that it was the Common Tern 
( Sterna Uirundo), and labelled as such. Just how the mistake arose, I do not know. 
Discovery of this mistake induced me to examine Mr. Daggett’s three specimens, and 
these, too, are unmistakably Sterna hirundo. , 
This removes a species from our southern California list, for there is no other rec- 
ord of 3. paradisaea for this region. With little doubt, however, it does occur, at least 
occasionally, along our seacoast. — H. S. Swaeth, Museum of History, Science and Art, 
Los Angeles, California. 
Bluebird Nesting in Low Country. — Dr. L. H. Miller’s note in the last Condor anent 
the breeding of the Western Bluebird ( Sialia mexicana occidentalis) reminds me of two 
similar instances that I noted this spring. On April 25 I found an uncompleted nest in 
a white oak near Arcadia, containing two fresh eggs. On May 13 a pair had a nest with 
three eggs in a willow tree at the entrance to Griffith Park near the Los Angeles River. 
I have often noted the birds in this vicinity during the breeding season. This species 
seems much more common lately near the city of Los Angeles than in former years. — D. 
I. Shepard son, Los Angeles, California. 
California Pine Grosbeak in Mono County, and Other Notes. — While descending a 
small branch valley of Mammoth Pass, southern Mono County, California, July 31, 1914, 
I flushed a pair of California Pine Grosbeaks ( Pinicola enucleator californic.a) that was 
feeding on the ground beside a stream at an altitude of about 9500 feet. The brightly 
colored male flew into a pine tree, where I shot him, but the female disappeared far up 
the mountain side. On August 5, while armed only with a light fly-rod, I spent five 
minutes watching another male that was feeding on the tender tips of a small spruce 
near me, at, I should say, an elevation of 9000 feet. As far as I am aware, this sub- 
species has never before been taken so far south. 
While passing the dairy corral of a neighbor near Covina, Los Angeles County, April 
29, 1915, a male Dwarf Cowbird ( Molothrus ater obscurus) flew up on the fence within 
fifteen feet of me and remained several minutes before returning to the ground farther 
away. By the time I had fetched my gun, he had disappeared. My chance for observing 
him was too good for there to have been a mistake in identity. 
I placed two bales of hay in the shade of a large orange tree six weeks ago. Upon 
removing these June 18 I found that a pair of Valley Quail ( Lophortyx calif ornica valli- 
cola) had taken possession of them. The bales were one on top of the other and merely 
in the shade of the tree without any dense protection of surrounding growth such as 
these birds usually demand, but there was a deep hollow formed in the straw of the top 
bale some four feet above the ground, and in this were three fresh eggs. 
The White-tailed Kite (j Clanus leucurus) is now so rare in our southland that it 
seems advisable to record one which I saw June 2, 1914, some two miles from El Monte, 
Los Angeles County. I was hunting in a grassy marsh all day and came quite close to 
the bird several times, once as near as a hundred yards. I hunted diligently for a nest 
or young, but I believe it likely that this was merely a lone individual. About a week 
later A. van Rossem visited this spot and noted what was undoubtedly the same bird. — 
A. Brazier Howell, Covina, California. 
A New Bird for the Pacific Slope of Southern California.— Recently there came into my 
possession a Great Horned Owl that seemed much lighter in coloration than the horned 
owls I had seen from this locality. The bird was found dead at the mouth of San An- 
tonio Canyon, Los Angeles County, elevation about 2000 feet, on January 10, 1915, by a 
Mr. Forbes of this place. The bird was sent to Mr. Grinnell for his opinion as to its 
