Jan., 1906 | 
29 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
Siphia. erithactiii Sharpe, Preoccupied. — The name Si phi a erilhacus Sharpe, Ibis, 
1888, p. 199 (-— Cvornis althaea of Sharpe’s Hand-list), applied to the little flycatcher of Palawan 
Island is preoccupied by Siphia erilhacus Blyth, P. Z. S., 1861, p. 201, applied to an Indian 
species. If no other name is available the Palawan bird may be known as Cyornis paraguce. — 
Richard C. McGregor, Manila , P. I. 
Buteo albicaudatus sennetti seen in San Francisco, Cal. — While taking a walk in 
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Cal., on Nov. 7, 1505, a rather good-sized hawk, which had 
an unfamiliar look, attracted my attention as it circled around some little distance away. For- 
tunately it came close enough to be seen more distinctly, and to my great delight its size and 
general coloration appeared to answer in every particular to the description of the Sennett White- 
tailed Hawk, and then as the sun shone on its tail as the bird wheeled and circled in the bright 
light there could be no mistaking the black band across the white ground for anything else on 
earth. Dr. C. PI art Merriam saw one, last year I think he said, near Bakersfield, Cal., but this is 
the most northern record I know of for the coast. — Joseph Maii.i.iard, San Francisco , Cat. 
The Wood Duck 111 Southern California. — I have hut seldom heard of the occurrence 
of the wood duck south of the San Joaquin, and even the few reports received have proven so 
intangible that definite records have been almost wanting. The southern coast licit of the State 
is obviously not suited to the preferments of this arboreal species, and in this we seem to find 
the explanation. 
Mr. Roth Reynolds, the well-known Los Angeles taxidermist, has taken the pains to verify 
the following record. Mr. Reynolds received a wood duck ( A ix sponsa ) in the flesh, for mount- 
ing. It proved to be a “male of the year, in nearly adult plumage,” and had been killed on a 
ranch near Oxnard, Ventura County, about November 6, 1905. — J. Grinnei.l, Pasadena , Cat. 
Notes on Some California Birds. — I secured an adult male and a young of the short- 
eared owl (Asia accipitrinvs) at Los Banos, Merced County, on June 20, 1903. The young was 
still partly in the downy, juvenile dress, and is now in the collection of Dr. Dwight. 
The northern phalarope {Phalaropus lobatus ) was abundant on our arrival at Monterey, 
June 3, 1903. We saw' a few swimming on a pond near there when we left, June 15. 
Dr. Dwight and I found a flock of about a dozen red phalaropes ( Crymophilus fulicarius) 
on a small pond at Point Pinos, near Monterey, June 3, 1903. Those secured before a maternal 
government interfered were assuming nuptial dress, but would not have bred for several weeks. 
Eleven sooty shearwaters {Puffinus fuliginosus) which I collected off Chatham, Mass., on 
August 19, 1904, are absolutely inseparable from eight dark-bodied shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) 
which I collected with Dr. Dwight off Monterey, California, on June 6, 1903. Both series are in 
the same stage of moult, which agrees with Dr. Dwight's discovery that birds of the Pacific 
moult two months earlier than those of the Atlantic. — Louis B. Bishop, Nezv Haven , Conn. 
Red Phase of the California Screech Owl? — An owl that has remained in mv 
collection since the early eighties, not satisfactorily identified, and of unusual interest on account 
of its small size and peculiar color, was sent to Mr. Win. Brewster last November to be compared 
with his fine northwestern series of screech owls. Mr. Brewster says (in part) in regard to my 
specimen: “Your Megascops ( Male; No. 339; Haywards, California; December 15, 1882) is unlike 
any screech owl from California that I have ever seen. I should refer it to kennicoiti. or rather 
to the small form of kennicoth which I described some years ago (Auk. Vol. VII, 1891, pp. 141-143). 
Indeed it agrees very closely with one of my exam pies of the latter y saturatus,iroxa. Portland, Oregon. ’’ 
This specimen measures: length 9 (inches); wing 6.25; tail 3.30; tarsus 1.30; bill from 
nostril .50. The entire upper parts are tinged with a tawny or rusty cinnamon, the whole crown 
of head and hind-neck being darker, with the shaft-streaks of the feathers a dull black, darker 
than on other parts of the back, giving it a sort of hooded or mantled appearance; the legs are a 
bright cinnamon, dark-barred on the tarsus; the lower margins of the auriculars are so strongly- 
marked as to appear as bars of black; the middle of the throat is more cinnamon-colored than 
other parts of the breast. I have as yet been unable to find a similar specimen in the various 
Pacific coast collections so far examined. So it stands as either a unique specimen of the red 
phase taken in California, or of the race k ennicotli of the Puget Sound region. — W. Otto Emerson, 
Haywards , Cal. 
