Sept., 1916 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
205 
In the May Condor of the current year, the present writer mentions the Cassin 
Kingbird as a possible summer resident of Humboldt County. The recent finding of 
several pairs of Western Kingbirds nesting along the Van Duzen River indicates that 
the species occasionally found in this section is verticalis and not vocifernns. — H. E. 
Wilder, Carlotta, Humboldt County, California, August 6, 1916. 
A New Breeding Record for California. — May 14, 1916, at Crescent City, Del Norte 
County, California, was a beautiful, bright, calm day. The panoramic view of that 
crescent stretch of sand, bordered by the Pacific in one of its calmest moods, with 
Whaler Island blending into its own shadow but a mile away, made irresistable the 
desire to seek out some new wonder. A skiff riding at anchor near-by was soon bar- 
gained for, and that mile to Whaler Island shortened its distance like magic. A land- 
ing was made on the rough- rocks at the eastern end, nearest the shore. 
A hurried inspection of the surroundings disclosed numerous holes in the ground 
on the central part of the island and promising crags on the west slope, overlooking the 
sea. Among the boulders I crawled, peeking in under this one and feeling in under 
that one. Bending way over, eyes strained, trying to pierce the darkness of a deep 
crevice, a blue object could barely be seen sticking from under a large wedge-shaped 
boulder, that barely left room for the hand; it was not the dark tail and white rump 
of which I was so familiar. A new wonder was disclosed — a beautiful male Fork-tailed 
Petrel (Oceanodroma furcata) which subsequently became skin number 453, with well- 
incubated egg number 2-16/1 — the basis of a new breeding record for the State of Cali- 
fornia. Not a lone pair of Fork-tailed, but a colony of approximately 100 pairs, was 
nesting on the west end. The honey-comb-like holes on the grassy flats were homes of 
the Kaeding Petrels, probably 300 pairs nesting there. 
Lo and behold, seventy miles farther south, on Sugar Loaf Rock at Trinidad, 
a still farther southward breeding record for furcata. In company with Mr. W. Leon 
Dawson on June 18, 1916, I visited the rocks off the Humboldt coast. Mr. Dawson, 
lucky fellow, pulled, tail first, from a Tufted Puffin’s burrow a Fork-tailed Petrel and, 
I might add, later a fresh egg of the same bird. I discovered a young Fork-tailed Petrel 
in the downy state the same day, and, several days after, Mr. Dawson took one adult 
and two young from the same island. The Fork-tailed were nesting in the sandy 
ground (unusual for this species) among about thirty pairs of the Kaeding Petrel.— 
C. I. Clay, Eureka, California, July 24, 1916. 
Occurrence of the Condor in Humboldt County. — There is no doubt but that the 
Condor ( G-ymnogyps calif or nianus) once occurred in numbers in Humboldt County, Cali- 
fornia. There are now two mounted specimens in Eureka. One, in the collection of the 
Public Library, was mounted by Mr. Charles Fiebig, and was secured from a dead 
spruce tree on the Devoy place, on Kneeland prairie, eighteen miles from Eureka, alti- 
tude 2200 feet, in the fall of 1889 or 1890. 
The other bird is in the collection of Dr. Ottemer in Eureka and was mounted by 
William Rotermund. This specimen was captured near the old Olmstead place on 
Yager Creek, altitude 1800 feet, about sixty miles east of Eureka, in the fall of 1892. 
Old settlers claim that the Condor was plentiful in early days in the Humboldt region. 
In my opinion it is now extinct here. — Franklin J. Smith, Eureka, California, July 21, 
1916. 
Lark Bunting at Cabezon, California. — In comparing Grinnell’s latest list of the 
Birds of California with some of my old notes I find that no record occurs of the Lark 
Bunting ( Calamospiza melanocorys) from the Salton Sea Desert. On May 7, 1883, I shot 
a male of this species at Cabezon, Riverside County, California. The bird was alone, 
extremely wild and only obtained after a long chase through the cactus. It was in 
breeding condition, the testes being enormously developed for a bird of this size and 
measured % by % inches. This fact seemed to point to the probability of the bird 
breeding in the vicinity, as the migrations were long since over. — R. B. Herron, San 
Bernardino, California. 
