30 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVIII 
ized that P. plumbeus might possibly occur there, as it does a, little farther east, in 
Nevada (Taylor’s Birds, etc., of Northern Humboldt County, Nevada, p. 419). 
Regulus satrapa olivaceus. Western Golden-crowned Kinglet. A family group 
encountered July 3, 1912, at an altitude of 7500 feet on the east slope of the Warner 
Range, and the species repeatedly seen thereafter near Eagle Peak. Not previously 
recorded from these mountains. 
Santa Barbara, California, December 8, 1915. 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
House Finch or Linnet? — Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis has long been known in 
the A. O. U. Check-List as the House Finch. It is generally known by that name over its 
whole vast range except in a portion of California. Yet it is rather persistently called 
Linnet (or, worse still, California Linnet) by a group of Californians of an ornithological 
turn of mind, who frequently succeed in getting one or the other of those terms into so 
excellent a magazine as The Condor. Is it impertinent to ask why? 
“Linnet” is certainly not distinctive. It means nothing. It is applied to different 
species in different parts of the world, and by the vast majority of ornithologists of the 
world would, if standing by itself without the technical name, be taken to mean a very 
different species which does not occur where the House Finch is found. 
Surely no one can defend the term “California Linnet” as applied to this bird. The 
temporarily successful effort a few years ago to have the latter adopted in the Check-List 
savored of an attempt to boost California real estate by foisting upon this wide-spread 
species a geographic name representing only a short, narrow strip along the extreme 
edge of its range. Some of us who frequently visit that great state and view its wealth 
and natural resources, enjoying its surf-bathing, climate, scenery and other advantages, 
admire the loyalty and boosting spirit of its citizens, but feel that it is hardly necessary 
to thus misrepresent the range of a bird species in ornithological nomenclature, in order 
to sustain California’s splendid material progress. Also we are constrained to believe 
that the few who are seeking to do so do not really represent the ornithologists of the 
state. I hope I may not be considered presumptuous in inviting the few seceders to 
move back into the United States and conform to the custom of the country, in the inter- 
ests of nomenclatural uniformity. — Junius Henderson, University of Colorado, Boulder, 
Colorado. 
Shearwaters on San Francisco Bay. — On the afternoon of September 8, 1915, while 
crossing the bay from San Francisco to Sausalito at 4:30 o’clock, a small movement of 
Shearwaters, presumably Puffinus griseus, was observed. The birds were working on 
an ebb tide from the upper bay toward the Golden Gate, their line of flight being be- 
tween Alcatraz and Angel islands. All crossed the bow of the boat, but when about 
mid-way between Alcatraz and the Heads, seemingly whirled back towards the former. 
Similar but larger movements have been noted on several occasions during the last 
fifteen years. — John W. Mailliard, San Francisco, September 11,, 1915. 
A Golden-crowned Sparrow Lost on Mount Shasta. — On August 22, 1915, I found a 
Golden-crowned Sparrow ( Zonotrichia coronata) frozen in the snow at an altitude of 
14,350 feet on Mount Shasta. The specimen was forwarded for verification of identity 
to the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, where it is preserved as an alcoholic 
(no. 25531 of the bird collection). Since the bird is apparently in nuptial plumage, it 
had probably met its fate some time during the preceding spring migration period. — 
W. J. Chamberlin, Weed, California. 
Late Nesting of the Arkansas Goldfinch. — On October 22, 1915, while pruning some 
apple trees near my house, I was surprised to find a Goldfinch ( Astragalinus psaltria 
hesperophilus) sitting on three eggs in a nest about eight feet above the ground in one 
of the apple trees. The young hatched on the 24th of October. I looked at the nest on 
November 4 and they were still in the nest; but on the 8th they had left, probably 
taken by a cat, though they may have flown by that time. — J. S. Appleton, Simi, Ventura 
County, California. 
