Santa Barbara,Cal. 
May 8,1911. 
) 
Bear Mr.Brewster, 
I want to thank you for your kind letter of 
30th.ult., which of course was of the greatest interest to me.naturally, 
I shall consider it absolutely confidential. 
On April 30th., the very day on which you wrote to me, I had the 
good fortune to collect a magnificent male Troupial(Icterus icterus). 
The feathers of wings and tail were in the most perfect condition,as 
well as the feet, so that I should feel positive it was not a. cage bird, 
even if there were no other evidence.However, about a month ago a friend 
here reported seeing three birds that he described as, "About the size 
of ''eadowlarke, but with long black tails, black heads, and a stripe over 
the back like a Holstien cow".He is an excellent observer and has done 
considerable bird work,but I thought he must have been dreaming until 
I got my Troupial and saw the orange stripe across the upper back,He 
picked it out at once from a lot of other birds,so it seems possible 
that there was a small migration of them this spring.My bird was with 
a large flock of migrating Western Tanagers,in a very wild section of 
Mission Canyon, and seemed perfectly at home in the tops of the sycamores. 
Thanking you again for: your letter, I am, 
Very sincerely yours, 
