I I 2 
Vor,. VII 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
Plegadis guarana at Stockton, Cal. — Mr. Clark’s interesting article on Migration of 
Certain Shore Birds in the April Auk reminds me of a remarkable flight of Plegadis guaruana 
past Stockton, May 5, 6, 7, 1879, during a gale from the northwest that lasted three days. During 
this time from 4000 to 5000 of these birds flew north. They followed the eastern edge of the 
tide marsh as nearly as the strong wind would allow them to, going by sinuous flight up and 
down, to the right and left, with few wing strokes. I have never seen so many of these birds in 
ail}' other year. 
The tule marsh west of and very near Stockton at that time had a width from east to west of 
about twenty miles, and was a resort at all times of numerous water birds, of which few are seen 
since the marsh has been reclaimed and cultivated. The willows on the banks of the river and 
sloughs were excellent collecting grounds during the spring migration, much better than at 
present, owing partly, I think, to the English sparrow which has nearly possessed the countrv 
about Stockton. During this flight of Plegadis a great many Dendrocygna fnlva went north over 
a slough about half a mile west of the route over which Plegadis flew, both species keeping on 
their respective routes during the three days' flight. — L. Bedding, Stockton , Cal. 
Note on Food of Gray-crowned Feucosticte. — While I was crossing the Western 
Divide of the southern Sierra, just north of the Saw-tooth in the vicinity of Mineral King, in the 
latter part of June, 1904, I saw a considerable number of Leucostide tephrocotis. They were run- 
ning about over the snow-drifts which extended from the Pass north of Saw-tooth to hake Colum- 
bine and were verv busy catching the twelve-spotted ladv-bird. I could see many little holes 
through the snow and wondered if the ladv-birds had made them. — W. F. Dean, Three 
Rivers , Cat. 
[Additional evidence of the inadequacy of the so-called “warning marks” of ladv birds! — E d.] 
Helminthophila sordida at Haywards, Cal. — Two specimens in mv collection, No. 19. 
male, Jan. 25, 1881, and No. 2087, Feb. 8, 1899, measure respectively, in millemeters; length of 
skin 119 and 120; wing, 59 (both); tail, 47 and 49; culmen, 11 and 12. No. 2087 "’as taken from a 
gum tree earlv one morning after a heavy rain storm with three //. c. lutescens. No. 19 is very 
highly colored, particularly the greenish yellow of rump and upper tail coverts. The crown 
patch is a deep orange green covering the whole head. The February bird is duskier, almost 
smoky, the crown patch being hardly distinguishable. This species may be looked for in the 
spring migration, particularly on wooded slopes of north hill-sides. This record is the most 
northern. — W. Otto Emerson, Haywards, Cat. 
Scaled Partridge at Pueblo, Colorado. — While waiting for a train at Pueblo, Colorado, 
on July 7, 1904. Mr. Bailey and I explored the outskirts of the town. In a twenty acre park of 
grass and newly planted trees on the edge of the city we found Arkansas flycatchers, western 
wood pewees, house finches, a meadowlark, a yellow warbler, and a western chipping sparrow, 
while a pair of Bullock orioles were feeding grown young. Just outside the park but in a typical 
desert patch of tree cactus and grease brush where mockingbirds, mourning doves, iark sparrows, 
and nighthawks were seen, we flushed a scaled partridge ( Ca/tipep/a squama/a.) As we followed, 
it scudded along and then burst into short flights, when crowded circling hack on set, curved 
wings to the place where it had first been flushed, suggesting that it might have a family in the 
vicinity. 
In his Birds of Colorado, Prof. Cooke states that the scaled partridges which were formerly 
“common along the cedars on the higher arid lands back from the river . . . have been 
working towards the cultivated lands along the river,” in the winter of 1899-1900 becoming “in 
the vicinity of Rocky Ford more common than the bobwhite.” (Birds of Colorado, .State Agr. 
Coll. Bull. 56, 1900, 202.) They have also been recorded from the neighborhood of Denver, so 
the Pueblo record merely serves to help fill in the line of their extending range. — Florence 
Merriam Baii.EY, Washington , P. C. 
Notes from Cochise Co., Ariz.: Purple Gallinule. — During the second week of 
June, 1904, a purple gallinule {Ion oris martinica) alighted on the lawn of one of the residences 
in Tombstone, where a hose was playing. It appeared very much exhausted and drank greedily 
which seemed to revive it somewhat. We watched it for sometime running around on the grass 
and then as.it showed no inclination or ability to fly we caught it. It died during the night, 
however. A friend here who saw the bird said he caught one in an exhausted condition at 
Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Alts. , in the month of April, 1903. He kept the bird alive for 
several days.— Frank C. Wii.i.ard, Tombstone, Ariz. 
