144 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVI 
birds usually start a second brood aliout this time, the young of which appear 
late in July. 
Sialia currucoides. Mountain Bluebird. Common summer resident of the 
foothills, but not common far into the mountains. More rare in the prairies, 
but fairly common locally about Chotean, Avhere it nests in and about build- 
ings. Migration date: March 28, 1912. Nesting begins about May 10. Two 
broods are usually reared. 
West Haven, Connecticut, December 21, 1913. 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
California Murre at Newport Beach, Orange County, California. — On January 28 of 
the present year, while looking for sea-birds which might have been washed up by the 
storm which swept the coast for ten days or more, I found a very “sick” Murre {JJria 
troille californica) sitting near the water’s edge. The bird was captured after a short 
chase and its lower parts were found to be soaked with oil. This would argue that it 
had been blown south from the San Francisco Bay region, where so many birds fall 
victims to the oil thrown from the tank steamers, and was not a regular visitant this 
far south. 
The main sufferers from the blow were the Cassin Auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuti- 
cus), nine being found in three miles of beach. Mr. A. B. Howell saw about forty 
in five miles of beach at Bay City a day or so previously. It is probably as much be- 
cause of the inability to feed on very rough water as the battering they receive that so 
much havoc is caused among the Auklets; for all were extremely emaciated and the 
stomachs empty. — Adkiaan van Rossem, Pomona, California. 
Return of a Western Flycatcher to a Particular Locality. — During the spring and 
summer of 1913 a Western Flycatcher {Empidonax difficilis difficilis), inhabiting the 
laurels and live oaks along Strawberry Creek near the Faculty Club, attracted my 
attention by its note. This differed from that of all other birds of this species which 
I have observed, in that the usual single note of rising inflection was preceded and 
succeeded by single short monotonous notes. This year (1914) the same note has 
been heard almost daily in the same locality. I believe, therefore, that the identical 
bird has returned to the same haunts that it occupied during the previous year. If 
this be true we have here another exhibition of the homing instinct in birds. — Tracy I. 
Stoker, Department of Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California. 
Red-winged Blackbird on the Sierras in Winter. — While sleighing to Donner Lake 
from Truckee on February 28, last, I was much struck by the absence of bird-life, only 
a couple of small birds flitting through some pines, having been seen. Unfortunately, 
it was impossible to form even an idea of the identity of these. 
Upon approaching the lake, a solitary male Red-wing flew up from the snow into 
a nearby pine, which act was repeated as we set forth upon the return journey. The 
bird each time was within a few feet of the sleigh, and it was readily seen that its 
plumage was quite ragged; also that the red shoulder patches were quite heavily 
barred with buff. 
Even with the probability that the bird had been forced to remain in such severe 
winter quarters through injury, its presence in such a locality upon the date mentioned 
seems worthy of record. — John W. Mailliard, San Francisco, California. 
Desert Sparrow near Claremont, California. — On March 14, 1914, while collecting 
in the brush north of here, I shot an adult male Aniphispiza Mlineata deserticola. As 
Mr. Willett, in his “Birds of the Pacific Slope of Southern California”, mentions this 
sparrow as but an occasional visitant to this region, I thought the above instance 
worthy of note. — Wriotit M. Pierce, Claremont, California. 
