IOO 
THE CONDOR 
| Voi.. VIII 
February 23 — Heavy sea and strong head wind; no birds of any kind seen 
up to breakfast time. 3:30 p. m. 3 gulls following. Altho the wind is on our bow 
and the gulls are obliged to head into it they move forward on the ship’s course. 
The diagram will make this plain. 
February 24 — Anchored in the Yangtze River at 12 last night. Altho the 
anchorage is 30 or 40 miles from the mouth, this river is so wide that it appears as 
if we were in a great bay. The water is fairly thick with yellow sediment which 
is carried far to sea and discolors the China Sea for many miles. The erosion by 
such a stream must be enormous. Nothing seen in the way of birds except a few 
gulls. The next day gulls are more numerous. 
February 26 — Left river and ran down China coast; 100 or more gulls follow- 
ing as we are passing among two groups of small islands, the Chu San and Fisher- 
man Islands. These islands and the adjacent coast were the hot-bed of Chinese 
pirates until steam navigation and the machine gun put them out of business. The 
islands are now inhabited by Chinese fishermen whose junks can be seen dotted 
over the water in all directions. 
February 27 — Warmer; smooth sea; 20 to 30 gulls. 
February 28 — F'ine smooth sea; many gulls on hand. There are numerous 
small islands off shore; some of these should be investigated for nesting colonies of 
sea birds. 
March 1 — Hongkong; raining and cold in great contrast to the extreme heat 
we experienced here last August. Milvus is over the water here in small numbers 
and two individuals hang around the clock tower in the center of town. 
March 3 — Left Hongkong for Manila. Many hawks about the bay; no gulls 
seen until we neared entrance of harbor w'hen a few picked us up and followed 
until late in the afternoon. 
March 4 — Gulls must have left us last night as none seen today nor afterwards. 
March 6 — Dropped anchor in Manila Bay late last night. 
Manila , P. 1 . 
“Atratus versus Megalonyx” 
BY ROBERT RIDGWAY 
I T gives me both pleasure and pain (especially the latter) to say that, notwith- 
standing the opinion which I expressed in the March number of The Condor, I 
now believe Mr. Grinnell and Mr. Swartli were justified in considering my Pipilo 
macnlatus atratus a synonym of P. m. megalonyx (Baird). Mr. Swartli has kindly 
sent me additional specimens of both the Southern California and the Rocky Moun- 
tain forms for examination, and these seem to show that the type of P. megalonyx 
is probably a male, in its first autumn or winter, of the resident bird of Southern 
California, and not, as I thought, of the Rocky Mountain form which has for so 
many years been known as P. m. megalonyx. The latter, therefore, should, I be- 
lieve, be known as P. m. montarms Swarth. 
Washington , D. C. 
