Nov., 1913 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
229 
writer he made a statement which seems of sufficient interest to repeat. Hearing that the 
island had been visited by two men who had killed several of the sea elephants, which he 
had been at some pains to protect, he at once hastened to the spot to ascertain the amount 
of the damage. On landing on the beach where the killing had been done, he found the 
place reeking with the decomposed remains of five or six of the animals. He had already 
remarked to me upon the noticeable scarcity of birds along the shore of the island, as com^ 
pared with the abundance of water birds elsewhere, but he further stated that as he landed 
several gulls flew up from the carrion, and with them two or three dark-colored birds, which 
he described as apparently crosses between an eagle and a turkey buzzard. This remark, 
coming from a man ignorant of a caracara, without prompting from myself, and not dwelt 
upon by him afterward, is at least suggestive of the possible persistence up to the present 
time of the supposedly e.xtinct Guadalupe Caracara (Polyborus lutosns). — H. S. Svvartii, 
Museum of History, Science and Art, Los Angeles, California. 
Sharp-shinned Hawk Nesting in Arizona. — On May 30, 1907, I collected a set of four 
eggs of the Sharp-shinned Hawk (Acci filer velox) from a nest in a small fir tree in Miller 
Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, Arizona, at an altitude of about 6,800 feet. Incubation was 
begun. The female sat very close and hung around close by while I collected the egg. — • 
Frank C. Willard, Tombstone, Arizona. 
Note on the Ashy Petrel.i — On August 3, 1913, I visited the Painted Cave on Santa 
Cruz Island and made a thorough search for the “nests” of the Ashy Petrel {Occanodroma 
Iwmocliroa) . I could find nothing but a few egg shells, which would indicate that the birds 
either bred earlier, or else did not breed there at all this season. — How.\rd W. Wright, 
Stanford University, California. 
Three New Birds from Eastern Oregon. — In working over a collection of bird skins 
from Harney Count}-, Oregon, collected by Mr. Wm. L. Finley during the summer of 1908, 
I found specimens of the following birds which I believe have never been put on record as 
occurring in this State. The identifications were made by Mr. Joseph Grinnell and Mr. H. C. 
Oberholser. 
Empidonax griseus. Gray Flycatcher. Two adult specimens in worn summer plumage 
taken in the open sagebrush country near Wright’s Point, about fifteen miles south of Burns, 
on June 25, 1908. 
Ainphispiza bilineata deserficola. Desert Sparrow. Two adult males taken at Wright’s 
Point on June 24 and 25, 1908. 
Hylocichla fusccscens salicicola. Willow Thrush. One adult male taken in the willows 
along Silvie’s River near Burns on June 24, 1908. — Stanley G. JewETT, Portland, Oregon. 
Spotted Owls in San Diego County. — On June 22, 1910, while hunting on Palomar 
Mountain, San Diego County, California, a strange object was seen moving in an oak tree 
about sixty feet above the ground. On closer observation its identity became more uncer- 
tain ; although I whistled several times it did not move. I finally decided to shoot and was 
astonished at the downfall of a dried gray-squirrel carcass. The animal had evidently been 
killed or had died lying crossways on a large limb. Its tail waving in the wind was the fea 
ture which had attracted me. 
At the same moment of the gun's explosion a large bird was seen to flop on the next 
limb directly above where the squirrel’s dried carcass had hung. Not being able to recog- 
nize the bird I decided to watch, and after a few minutes an owl was seen to cautiously 
peep over the edge of the limb. It e 3 -cd me first with one black eye and then the other. I 
shot it, and on picking up the specimen was surprised to identify a full-plumaged Spotted 
Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) . 
The following year, 1911, on the same date, June 22, and in the same locality, a party_ of 
us had planned to go to a nearby hillside where tiger lilies were known to grow, and, being 
rather on the lookout for specimens, I took my gun. All of us were busily engaged in dig- 
ging the bulbs of the lilies, when a sudden “ow-w-w-ow” brought me to my feet, gun in 
hand, and after cautiously peering in all the surrounding trees a Spotted Owl was seen 
perched near the top and very close to the trunk of a small cedar tree about forty feet high. 
Not wishing to shoot the bird to pieces my aim was made a little to the side. The shot 
dropped a wounded bird and while I was occupied in extinguishing its life a clamorous call 
from a member of the party proclaimed the location of a second owl. I quickly dropped the 
first bird, grabbed the gun and soon had two owls to my credit. The last one was also 
perched near the trunk and very close to the top of a small fir tree about 60 feet high. 
These birds were in moult, one having a single tail feather, and the other none at all : 
they were a pair and probably had raised a brood early in the spring. Further ^examination 
made positive that this spot had been their roosting place for some time past. _ The stomachs 
of these 1)irds were entirely empty, giving no evidence of what their food might have been 
in this locality. — Laurence M. Huey, San Diego, California, 
