174 
TIME CONDOR 
Vol. XII 
Dark-bodied Shearwater ( Pit ffin us g risen s) . Abundant at sea during our en- 
tire trip. 
Black Petrel ( Occanodroma melania ) . Common out at sea. None of these 
birds were seen within a mile or two of land at any time and, altho we made par- 
ticular search for evidence of their breeding, we found none. 
We left San Miguel on the evening of June 23, and arrived in San Pedro the 
afternoon of the 24th, well satisfied with the results of our trip, but glad to be out 
of the everlasting wind. 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
Larus canus: a Correction. — Shortly after my record of the capture of a young Mew Gull 
(L. canus ) appeared in The Condor (vol. VIII, p. 75) I received two gulls from North Carolina 
in immature plumage, one of which was evidently the Ring-billed (L. delawarensis) and the 
other intermediate between this and my Pacific Reach bird. This made me strongly suspect that 
both these were also L. delawarensis , and later I was able to compare these skins and other Ring- 
billed Gulls with a series of European specimens of L. canus in the collection of Dr. Jonathan 
Dwight, Jr., with the following result: L. canus has a more slender bill and shorter wing and 
tail than L. delawarensis ; but the male L. canus is the same size as the female of L. delawarensis , 
tho the bill is slightly more slender. This slight difference in size is the only character separat- 
ing the young of the two species in first winter plumage. My bird should therefore stand as 
L. delawarensis , and to this species, I suspect, most California records of L. canus belong. — 
Louis B. Bishop. 
A Southern California Spring Record for the JLornmon Tern. — May 24, 1910, I took two 
specimens of the Common Tern ( Sterna hirundo) from a flock of 12 or 15 that were fishing near 
the outlet of the Los Angeles outfall sewer at Hyperion Beach, Los Angeles County. 
The birds taken were adult male and female and were in almost full summer plumage. 
So far as I know, there are only two previous records for this species in southern California 
and they are both in the fall. One of these records was by IT. W. Marsden at Pacific Beach, 
San Diego County, in September, 1904; and the other by C. B. Linton at Alamitos Bay, Los 
Angeles County, in September, 1907. These instances have both been previously recorded in 
The Condor. — G. Wii.lett. 
Cowbird again Noted in Los Angeles County. — On July 1, 1910, with George Willett 
and Antonin and Alphonse Jay, 1 was down in the lowland willows, and we found three nests of 
the California Cuckoo ( Coccyzus a. occiden/alis) — one with young less than a week old, one 
nest with four eggs, and one with three eggs. While passing along the road we observed a bird 
which I am morally sure was a female Cowbird ( Molothrus a. obscurus?) as it was considerably 
less in size than a female Brewer Blackbird, and of the umber brown color thruout, of the eastern 
female cowbird. While in the willows, Antonin Jay discovered a nest of the Traill Flycatcher, 
with two eggs of its own and one of the cowbird; and while I was watching the cuckoo with her 
brood of young, a male yellowthroat came hopping along with a young cowbird in close tow, 
coming within ten feet of where I sat. This youngster was fully fledged, but still bobtailed, and 
was about twice the size of the yellowthroat; the yellowthroat would frequently run up to him 
and put something into his bill. The little fellow was, as nearly as I could make out, quite 
streaked. — J. Eugene Law. 
An Additional Song Sparrow for California. — A California-taken song sparrow recently 
submitted to me for determination proves to be Melospiza melodia caurina Ridgway. It is 
identical in every respect with numerous skins of M. m. caurina in the Museum of Vertebrate 
Zoology collection, from several localities in southeastern Alaska. I have never seen anything 
like it before from California. The specimen is a female, no. ,34, collection of C. Irvin Clay, 
and was obtained at Eureka, Humboldt County, California, February 20, 1910. 
Mr. C. I. Clay, who personally secured this rare bird, writes me that this same individual 
was first seen on January 17, and was noted on five subsequent occasions, always in exactly the 
same locality, up to February 20 when it was shot. The bird staid among drift-wood on the 
ocean beach. It was shy, and would run along in the shelter of logs, peeking over occasionally, 
