Issued Quarterly by the Western Bird-Banding Association
The Editors Resign New Members: A Bigger and Better W.B.B.A. Banded Gulls Pioneer OI~ithologist - Joseph Mailliard Results from Wildlife Service Files of Banded Robins Band-tailed Pigeons Nest in Colorudo Bandlng Activities with Birds of Prey in 1944 and 1945 Dea.d Owls and Mou.rning Doves Not How Many but How Rare California Blue Grosbeaks at Pomona Annual Report - 1945 Banders Who Reported for the Year 1945 Notes on Colorado Birds Banders at the Mission Nest Parasites Band Records Lost Traps Made Available Co-editors of the ~ President of W.E.B.A --- F. G. Crawford Mary M. Erickson, Santa Barbare'J Calif. 2782 Glen Avenue, Altadena, California Frank M. Erickson, Santa Barbara, Calif.
Address all contributions to the ~ to Mrs. M. C. Sargent, P. O. Box 109, La Jolla, California
At the request of P~esident F. G. Crawfo~d and with due modesty, the Editors give place to the following statement: "At its January meeting, the councillo!'s of W.E.B.A. extended to me the privilege of voicing their gratitude for the faithful and excellent editorial work that Dr. Mary M. Erickson and Dean Frank M. Erickson have devoted to the ~ for the past five years. It is certain that the entire membership of the Association joins the Council in this appreciution. We deeply regret that the co-editors find it necessary to conclude their editorial duties with this issue. "That the News hus continued to grow in quality is solely due to the efforts of our co-editors. We huve repeatedly received compliments, from within our Association as well as from ornithologists in the east,.on the Ericksons I work. We hope th~t, in some way, they have been Gna will be partiQlly repaid for their efforts in our behalf.
The new editor, Mrs. M. C. Sargent, who demonstrated her superior abil- ity as editor of the ~ in the years 1936'to 1940, will begin official duties with the June issue. To her the present editors extend most cordial greetings and b~st wishes.
In the September issue of the ~, we printed afew.lipes from "Autumn Eveningll, a poem by Robinson Jeffers. The lines were used with the kind permission of the Editor of Random House, Inc., publishers of The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, from which the quoted lines were taken. Mr. Jeffers is a California poet residing on the Mont~rey coast.
The Western Bird~Banding Association is in need of new members to in- crease its strength in coritinuingits efforts toward the purposes for which it was founded; namely, to promote bird study by the banding method, to draw the pird banders of western North America into a community of in terests, to previde a m~d~ iurnfor the exchange of "ideas and information among the bird banders and other interested bird students. Now that the w~r is over, it is hoped that many more people can gratify their interests in bird banding; that present banders will become more active; that new people will become banders; that all banders and all bird students in the West who are interested in banding will reaiize that the advantages to be gained from membership in and participation in W.B.B.A. activities far outweigh the nominal cost involved in becoming a member. (see back cover). We request that all mem- bers, as well as non-member benders lose no opportunity to promote banding activ- ities in the Vlest,to the mutual advantage of the banding program in general and W.B.B.A. in particular. Your Council will welcome suggestions for 'improving our organization from every member. Please address your suggestions to the Secretary, H~rold Mich- ener, 4l8~orth Hudson Avenue, Pasadena, 4, California. Please send new member- ships and remittances to 'the Business Manager, Mrs. N. Edward Ayer, 1,300 Hillcrest Drive, Pomona, Californi&.
Now that I tun back at triyoldstamping ground, I am ag!dn collecting mat- erial and records on color-banded gulls.
'With gas rationing over, and, many a bird enthusiast out of uniform again, how about some trips to gull colonies this summer, to look for color-banded adults?
Write - Mrs. Marst~l C. Sargent, Box 109, La Jolla, California. '
The following item about Joseph Mailliard, long an active member of W.B.B.A., will be of interest to all readers of the'News. It appeared in the Oak- land Tribune, December 2,3, 1945. -,
,"Joseph Mailliard, who later 'became an ornithologist of int.ernational re- putation was 10 years o~d When, with his parents, he left New Jersey in 1868, for a ranch in Marin County. Many Californians, in his later life, knew him as CurE- tor Emeritus of the Department of Birds and Mammals at the California Academy of Sciences. Dr. Robert'C. Miller, director of the &cademy, tells me that "Joseph Mailliard's continuing reputation in his field is assured by the 160 scientific pa- pers he published and the fiJ}eco+leetionshe and his brother, John Ward Mailliard, gave the California Academy of Sciences." ,Dr. Miller lists the collection as com- posed of some 10,000 bird skins, a larger number o'feggs, rmd several hundred bird nests; Joseph Mailliard assisted in the preparetion of the John Ward Mailliard Mem- orial Collection of Birds of 'the Buy region which may be seen in North American Hall, Golden Gate Park, a tribute to his brother whowes'for many years a trustee of the e.cademy. "Joseph Mailliard began his bird collection as So boy, and later, when engaging in ranching actiVities, he trained his COWboys to observe and collect birds. His hobby of bird collecting was an absorbing in'terest in his life. He made an expedition to Chile in 1902, giving his collection to the academy. This was destroyed in the great fire of 1906. But Mr. Mailliarci's Alaskan collection is still in the academy archives. He was curator of birds and mammals at the academy from 1919 to 1926, when he was appointed curator emeritus."
During the past year, two articles have been published which should en- courage all banders:, those who band few as well as those who b and many, to contin- ue to band as many birds as possible and to add the records of those birds to the files of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Both articles are based upon records of banded Robins sent to those files by banders in the region north of the Miss- ouri and Ohio Rivers and north of the southern boundaries of Pennsylvania and New Jersey; thus the studies are limited to the northern race. Turdus migratorius migra torius. Both articles require careful study if one wishes to understand the de- tails that were developed in making the analyses and to appreciate the wealth of comparisons with the results obtainedby' other workers, mostly European, on the subjects at hand. However, each article has a concise summary which gives the re- sults detailed in the main 'text.
For both articles the prime assumption is that a group of birds of a species which were banded as young and SUbsequently recovered constitute a normal sample of the entire population of the species. Various aspects which might make the sample under consideration differ from the population as a whole and their possible influence on resulting conclusions if they should be effective are dis- cussed.
& Groups and Longevity .in ~ American Robin, by Donald S. Farner. (Wilson Bulletin, 57, March 1945 : 56 - 74). For this study records were avail- able of 855 Robins which were banded before their first November 1 - and reported as returns or recoveries after their first November 1; thus the robin year is from November 1 to October .31, inclusive, and the high mortality between the time of banding and the first November 1, which cannot be determined accurately from banding data, is eliminated from consideration, except as it is discussed on a hypothetical basis. These records extend through the period 1920 ....1940. It is assumed the population is stable, 1oe., on each successive November 1 the total number is approximately the same and the proportion of the total in the various' age groups is the same. On this basis, «l any November 1, the number of birds for which this 1s their first November 1 is equal to the nwnber of birds that have died during the previous year and this number, expressed as a percentage of the total population, is the mortality rate for the whole population. Likewise, the number of birds for which this is not their first November 1, i.e., the sum of the second-year, third-year, etc. birds expressed .as a percentage of the total population, is the survival rate. The sum of these two rates equals 100%. A survival rate of about 47% and a mortality rate of about 5.3%,for this sample of 855 birds, are found. This also could be stated by saying that the populo.tion, as of November 1, is 5.3%birds that have arrived at their first November 1 and 47% older birds.
Some other results found are that the age-group composition of the Robin popUlation is about as follows: 1st year birds, 5.3%, 2nd year 25%, 3rd year 14%, 4th year 5%, 5th year 2%, 6th year 1%; that the age-group composition in the wintering-area population is similar to that in the breeding-area population, in- dicating ncdifferential mortality according to ages during spring migration; .. that the average nat ural longevity is about 1.7 years, including a calculated .4 year from hatching to the first November 1; that the turnover period, the time re- quired for the birds hatched in a single year to shrink in numbers to an insignif- icant portion of the population, is about six years; that the life expectancy from the first November 1 to the third November 1, and hence for about 90% of the popula- tion, i51.2 to 1.3 years, ,and within these limits is apparently independent of the age of the bird;, that life expectancy figures calculated from the number of birds shot and from those killed by cats are similar to those for the total sample. "Death in Robins. • • is appa~ently a matter of chance and largely independent of age once the birds have survived the critical fledgling period." (Note that the article con- siders that the fledgling period extends to the ftrst November 1.)
This article would have been more easily understood if ~ U16 age terms used had been listed and defined thus giving the reader a single place of ref6rence when he fails to keep in mind the precise meanings. It is suspected that such a list in front of the author, while working on the article, would have led to gre&ter clar- ity. The term "adultll is particularly troublesome and could better have been omitted because it is used throughout to indicate the birds that have passed their first November 1, but is defined as those which have passed their second November 1. The definition is incorrect for the purposes of this article. There are several minor errors in the figures in the tables but they do not detrr.,ctfrom the value of the results except to add some confusion for the reader.
l'.h!. Return of Robins to their Birthplaces, by Donald S. Farner. (Bird- Banding, 16, July 1945: 81 - 99). For this s.rticle 428 records were available of Robins which had been bllnded as young betweerl April 1 and September 1 &nd reported as returns or recoveries during subsequent breedi.ng seasons. The major conclusions that there is a marked tendency for this race of Robins to return, as breeding birds, to their birthplaces is clearly shown on a diagram of concentric circles. It shows 387 returns and recoveries within 25 miles of the center, the place of birth, 13 between 25 and 50 miles, 10 between 50 and 100, 10 between 100 and 200, nnd 8 more than 200 miles, 5 of which are considered to be doubtful breeding records. The 25-mile-radius circle is solid black with its 387 records and the file data was not sufficiently precise to allow of accurate breakdown of this group. Those between 25 and 200 miles are shown in distance and direction from their birthplaces.
The results of this analysis cannot be better stated thnn in Dr. Farner's summary; "There is a marked tendency among Robins, Turdus migratorius rnigratorius, to return, as breeding birds, to their birthplace or its immediate vicinity. Among the retrapped birds, 120 of 121 were taken at the station where they were banded, Although these data may exaggerate the tendency to return to the birthplace, they Show definitely that there is no random dispersal among the first-year breeding birds. The data from returns and recoveries other than those retrapped show that the absolute minimum estimate of bird~ whose breeding locatilies are within 25 miles of their birthplace is about 70 percent~ The actual rate is doubtless considerably higher, probably between 87 percent, the rate for non-trapped recoveries and returns, and 92peroent, the corrected rate for all recoveries and returns. It is obvious therefore, that there is little interbreeding among Robins in different partw of the range of typical migratoriu8 although it may be sufficient to maintain t:l homo- geneous ~ace unless there are considerable variations in selective factors in var- ious parts of the range." This last sentence, and the text paragraph which it summarizes, suggest intriguing possibilities in the development of races. ~ both articles, the author calls attention to several questions which can be answered only by more data on banded Robins. Once there are enough records it will be extremely interesting to know what answers they will yield for the ques- tions mentioned, also for many other questions, such as the distribution of the pop-.- ulation in the various age groups throughout the year, and the accuracy of the pre- sent assumption that the records available for these two studies do constitute a normal sample of the Robin population. Many more Robins should be banded and it should be emphasized that those banded as nestlings, fledglings and juveniles (see Harold B. Wood, "Names of Age Groups of Young Birds", Bird-Banding, 17, January, 1946: 27 - 33) are the ones that give really important dnta for these types of studies. Those banded as nesting adults are next in importance.
BAND-TAILED PIGEONS NEST IN COLORADO All but seven of the birds banded du~ing the year were banded in/direct connection with various research projects of this laboratory. My only banding of interest is that of two band-tailed pigeons. While this species has long been known in Colorado, until 1945, no nest had ever been veri- fied by the taking of specimens or photographs though woodsmen had reported nests at various times. On August 22, 1945, I found the first nest (insofar as authenticated records go) some fifty miles from Denver, end on August 31, R.J.Niedrach of the Col- orado Museum of Naturnl History, who ,ms photographing my nest, found another nearby. The squabs from these two nests are the two Bnno-tailed pigeons reported as banded, and as far as I know, these were the first bc~d-tails banded in Colorado.
A paper on the find and study of these nests authored by Niedrach and me will appear in The Wilsen Bulletin early in 1946.
Johnson A. Neff, Wildlife Research Laboratory, 546 Customhouse, Denver, 2, Colorudo.
Banding activities for 1944 were largely confined to birds of prey. While I was aiding my friend, Telford Work, with his efforts to obtain Kodachrome motion pictUres of the nesting birds of prey in california, I was able to band a few of the young birds. Most of the time was spent in the Mount Hamilton Range in Santa Clara County. With the.aid of Al rlool, who has closely observed the predatory birds of this region for many years, we were able to locate a considerable number of nests, more than our rather meager banding reSults indicate. OUr banding re- cords show that we tagged the folloWing: Turkey Vulture, 3; Golden Eagle, 1; Red-tailed HaWk, 4; Sparrow Hawk, 11; Barn Owl, 4.
Banding in 1945 was about equally divided between birds of prey and water birds which were banded on several trips to some of the coastal islands. The preda- tor banding was again done largely in Santa Clara County. :F'ourCooper Hawks, 2 Red- tails, 3 Golden Eagles, 2 Sparrow Hawks, and 13 Barn Owls were banded in this area. at particular L~ terest were the Barn Owls. Three pair of these owl~ were nesting at the same time in various parts of the Hoover Memorial War Library tower on the campus of Stanford University. One nest was in the top dome within a few feet and fully exposed to the powerful dome light which burns every night. * The most exciting banding adventure was along the picturesque and precip- I itous coast line of Monterey County where we finally discovered a Duck Hawk' So eyrie. Unfortunately, only one young was raised in "this nest. Banding the young bird while crouched on the narrow nest ledge 100 feet above the surf and hanging onto a rope at the same time was some fun!
Harold M. Hill, San Francisco, California
* Four or more owls were found dead at Stanford University, near the Univer- sity and Hoover Libraries. A janitor who examined them thought they died of starv- ation. They were young birds. Perhaps you have had a report from someone on the campus. Through the year, I saw only two or three mourning doves in this neigh- borhood. In previous years, I have seen as many as five pairs. However, the last of December, we saw as many as 25 or 30 in a low part of Stanford University land used as a pasture, back of the University. Mrs. H. H. Ward, 937 Roble Ridge, Palo Alto, California.
We have not banded many birds this year, but have added fiv~ new species to our list, making a total of lOB species and sub-species banded. The new species were Brewer Sparrow, Western Wood Pewee, Black Brant, Red-tailed Ha.wk, and Slender- billed Nuthatch.
The Brewer Sparrow was our outstandi~g catch of tho year and will be re- ported in the Condor.
The Black Brant was found at Huntington Beach slightly wounded and wus released after its recovery. We are hoping that it might produce an interesting record.
C. V. ,and J. V • Duff, 1922 Tamarind Avenue, ~ollywood, 28, California. I do not find any other references to the Black Brant in the files of the News. Grinnell and Miller say of them: "Winter visitant. • • still abundant locally." They cite Pitelka (Condor, 43, 1941:29/+) Occa~5iona.lbirds in poor con- dition remain through SunIDleralong the seacoast. (Editor) 7. (Vol. 21 : 7, March, 1946) CALIFORNIA BLUE GROSBEAKS AT POMONA Grinnell and Miller say or'the blue grosbeak -- "summer residents; •••• fairly common to common locally in int,erior and in southern California; rare in cen- tral coastal district." Yet in twenty years of'i'l.B.B.A.banding but 15 birds have been reported as banded, the lest of these in 1934 when 4 were banded in california and 1 on the "Colorado Desert." In 1936, their presence was reported on the "flats back of Newport Beach", Ca.lifornia. (Editor's note.) Among the many pleasurable aspects of bird-banding, not the least of them is the realization tha.t at any time one may find a new and interesting bird in the trap. Such was my good fortune on May 18, 1945, when I found an entirely unfamil- iar bird in the Brenckle water trap. At first glance, I thought the bill resembled that of a grosbeak, and as I removed the bird from the trap, a sharp and painful nip from that same bill confirmed this opinion. I placed the bird in another trap for consideration, and after consulting various authorities, identified the bird as a female California blue grosbeak. The next day, I followed up an unfamiliar song from the eucalyptus tree on our front lawn, and it appeared to be coming from a female blue grosbeak. It was not-until later, after having read further on the subject, that I learned that it sometimes requires four years for a male blue grosbeak to acquire full adult plumage. Later on in the day, I saw the pair, and saw that the song was being given by the unhanded male. Thcst.Jtwo bird.s were seen and hea.rd daily until May 26th, then I did not see them again UIltil July 4th, when they became very active, and it was evident that they were n0stlng, for he sang daily from the top of the sage bushes which covered the hillside, while she was seen only occasiomdly. I tried to find the nest, but unfortunately did not succeed, although I went to the exact clump of bushes to which she flew, and made Bn extended search there. On July 15th, thref;:lyoung birds appeared in the eucalyptus tree, and the little family of five were seen daily, the male still singing constantly, until July 25th. On that d.ayone young bird was trappod and banded, in the same trap in which his mother had been captured, but after that duy they disappeared, never to return. It wa.s interesting that as time went on, the blue on the head of the male was becoming much more apparent. Of course, blue grosbeaks arc not uncommon birds in Southern Co.liforni£.., but apparently they arc seldom found far from water, preferring to nest in "low thick vegetation in the vicinity of water," and as Hoffman says, "dwellers in .••••• foothill country rarely see it." The nearest water to us Puddingstone Luke, an artificial lo.keabout three miles from hel'e, so this pair evidently were the excep- tion to the rule.
I did look forwurd to the possibility of their returning this year, but unfortlwately, the hillside where they nested ha.sbeen burned over, and is being "improYed" for dwelling sites; improvements v:hichwill not be appreciated, I sus- pect, by blue grosbeaks.
Mrs. N. Edward Ayer, 1300 Hillcrest Drive, Pomona, California. ANNUAL REPORT 1945 I
Eared Grebe 10 Brandt's Cormorant 15 Great Blue Heron 6 Brewster's Egret 1 Anthony Green Heron 3 Canada Goose 60 Black Brant 1 White-fronted Goose 1 Mallard 475 27 62 Gadwall 277 8 269 Baldpate 197 97 90 American Pintail 799 526 188 Green-winged Teal 65 33 28 Blue-winged Teal 428 428 Shoveller 122 59 63 Redhead 18 5 13 Canvas-back 2 2 Lesser Scaup 393 393 Mile-head I, 1 Ruddy Duck 6! 5 California Condor White-tailed Kite ~I Sharp-shinrled Hawk Cooper's Hawk il Red-tailed Hawk 5! Swainson' s Hawk 21 Golden Eagle 5' Duck Hawk 11 Sparrow Hawk 4 California Quail 78 Gambel Quail 58 35 Florida Gallinule 6 5 I' Coot 45 12 Black Qyster-Catcher 2 2 Killdeer 16 10 Wilson Snipe Long-billed Curlew 251 23 Spotted Sandpiper Western Willet ~ I 2 I Lesser Yellow-legs Baird's sandpiper Ii 1 I Least Sandpiper Marbled Godwit 59? I 599 I Avo~et Westc-rn Gull 27~! 273 I nr.lifo:-:-ninGull 500 1 Ring-billed Gull 26 : I Sho~t-~illed Gull 2' Common Tern 8!-Ll_ Caspian Tern 1 1 California Murre 1 1 P1geonC~illemot 2 2 Cassin's Auklet 1 1 , Band-tailed Pigeon .3 1 2 I Western Mourning Dove 90 9 61 18 2 Chinese Spotted Dove 24 24 Ringed Turtle Dove 22 22 Vfuite-winged Dove 8 8 Mexicun Ground Dove 4 4 Inca. Dove 126 126 I 'Barn Owl 16 16 Screech Owl 6 6 I Horned Owl ~ 2 Kingfisher 5 5 Red~shnfted Flicker 9 9 Gila Woodpecker 8 8 , ,Red-headed Woodpecker 1 1 Downey Woodpecker I 1 1 I White-headed Woodpecker I 1 1 I Arkansas Kingbird I 7 7 I Cassin's Kingbird 1 11 Ash-throated Flycatcher I 1 1 Black Phoebe 10 6 Traill's Flycatcher l~ I .3 Western Flycatcher 16 16 Western Wood Pewee 1 1 Violet-green Swallo~ 2 2 Tree Swallow 4 4 Steller's Jay 11 5 .3 3 California Ja.y 69 67 2 Black-billed Magpie 1 1 Raven 5 5 . Black-capped Chickadee 10 10 Mountain Chickadee 41 41 Plain Titmouse 28 , 28 Bush-tit 17 17 White-breasted Nuthatch 6 6 Red-breasted Nuthatch 5 4 1 Wren-tit 38 .38 Western House Wren 18 17 1 Bewick Wren 19 19 Cactus Wren 8 8' Mockingbird 169 165 4 Catbird :2 2 Brown Thrasher .3 .3 Bendire Thrasher -. 7 7 Curve-billed Thrasher 16 16 , : ,: I ~l , I 'M I I 0' •. I I I:: f.ol b.O :IS I s.. r:J ;.j. , {J) ~ I ~j 1::. I:: +' 0 I:: ro r'-I
Rufous-crowned Sparrow 2 2 Slate-colored Junco 4 1 3 Oregon Junco, 368 152 3 73 137 3 Pink-sided Junco 42 42- Gray-headed Junco 75 75 Chipping Sparrow 42- 30 8 2 2 Brewer's Sparrow 1 1 Ha.rris Sparrow 1 1 White-crowned Sparrow 913 683 198 3 7 15 7 Golden-crowned Sparrow 382 378 2 2 Fox Sparrow 42 25 17 Song Sparrow 259 244 10 5 Lincoln Sparrow 34 32 2 - Totals 11,344 6583 770 688 9 218 132] 33 165.3 66 - 3i ...... SUMMARY BY STATES Birds Banders· Species
Alaska 6i:J 1 10 Alberta 1653 1 23 Arizona 770 2 29 California 658.3 21 107 Colorado 688 2 27 Nebraska 9 1* 5 Oregon 218 2 12 utah 1.321 2 12 Washington .3 1 1 Wyoming 33 -1. J 11.344 .33 158 633*** ..it. 62 11977 37 164**
* Duplicate. ** Duplicates omitted. *** Four reports were received after the tabulation by species had been completed and put in shape for the "printer". The four reports, however, are included in the totals. Six species, which are not included in the original list, appear in these four reports. They are: Wandering Tattler, Marsh Hawk, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Hoary Redpoll, White-throated Sparrow, Snow Bunting. (Vol. 21 : 12, March 1946) 12.
BANDERS WHO REPORTED FOR THE YEAR 1945 With Addresses and Individual Scores If no state is given in the address, California is understood. The fig- ures in the first column give the number of birds banded; in the second column, the number of species.
Allen , Walter I. 1751 Pepper Drive Altadena 246 Ayer~ Mrs. N. Edward 1300 Hillcrest Drive Pomona 916 (Baumann, Fr. Severin, O.F •M. Old Mission Santa Barbara 1329 (Glaas, Fr.Norman, O.F.M. Crawford, Franklin G. 2782 Glen Avenue Altadena 417 Dixon, Ralph E. Star Route #357 Escondido 12 Duff, C. V. and J. V. 1922 Tamarind Avenue Hollywood 28 70 Erickson, F. M. and H. S. 165 Foothill Road Santa Barbara 133 F..'rickson,Mary M. .165 Foothill Road santa Barbara 58 Graham, Hatch 10300 VirettaLane Los Angeles 24 40 Henderson, Mrs. R. N. 392,2Broadway Sacrsmento 453 Hill, Dr. Harold M. 3625 Jackson Street San l'rancisco 334 Kinsey, Eric C. P. O.Box 76 Manor 458 Linsdale, Jean M. Jamesburg Route Monterey 567 Mack, W. E. Route 2, Box 172 Healdsburg 18 McMurry, Frank B. P. O. Box 1032 Yuma, Arb. * 105 Michener, Harold & Josephine 418 N. Hudson Avenue Pasadena 73 Peterson, James G. Route 1, Box 197 San Jose 36 Rich, Charles Selwyn 114 Champion Place Alh£,mbra. 180 Rogers, Ir1 402 Alturas Avenue Modesto 1356 Stoner, Emerson A. 149 East L Street Benecia 68 Thompson, Charles G. 587 Arlington Berkeley 7 171 Van Huizen, Peter J. Sacramento Wildlife Refuge Ward, Mrs. H. H. and W. V. and W. P. 7
Birchett, Mrs. Jos. T. 202 E. 7th Street Tempe, Arizona 406 Stannard, Carlos Route 7, Box 1178 Phoenix, Ariz. 364
Guild, Captain E. R. Box 548 Glenwood Springs 243 Neff, Johnson A. 546 Customhouse Denver, Colo. 454 McNab, James Arthur McMinnville, Ore. 4 Richardson, Carl Trail, Oregon 214 Bear' River Migratory Bird Refuge P. O. Box 603 Brigham, Utah 816 Behle, William H. University of utah Salt Lake City 505 600 Weatherly Bldg.
1607 Chestnut st.
Rand'•.ll; Thomas E. Dickson,Alberta 1653 23 Salt, W. Ray Mt. Royal Co11bge Culg~ry,Alberta. 9 4 * Banding in California ** BP~ding in Washington Kyllingstad, Henry C. Mt. Village Alaska 159 Williams, Ralph B. Box 2354 Juneau, Alaska 66
A glance through the notebook: "The Red-breasted Nuthatch, the tiniest bird I ever held - except for "Gadget" the hummingbird. Sparrow Hawkstruck one. of the traps with a Junco in it; he must be a renegade. Mamaand Papa Bu~lpck's Oriole are 061. ting suet on the apple tree; Mamaseldom came back after being banded, but Papa did not let it in terfere with his gastronomic pleasure; he will burst if he keeps it up."
"It rained wormsfrom a Robin's nest in the big Lombardypoplar; that brood has sloppy table manners. An Olive-backed Thrust sang all evening along the Roaring ~"ork. The apple tree was filled with gray mice this morning ("mice" are Lead-colored Bushtits). TwoMagpies were on Country Boy (horse), one pecking at something on his rump, the other fixing his front hoof; Country Boy seemed to like it, lifting his hoof in a. co-operative way."
"My pardner (wife) banded a Harris' Sparrow while I was away--rare in Col- orado, especially the Western slope. In Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado along U. S. 40, December17, I drove thrOUgh n veritable cloud of Horned Larks for over a hundred miles. They averaged 100 per mile, sometimes in flocks of 300 or more that makes 10,000 Horned Larks feeding along a. lOO-mile stretch of road."
This is the last report that Fr. Normanand I will send you from the Old Mission. I have been transferred to. the Seminary, as a professor. ~ new duties take up my time most completely so that I have very little time to devote to bird banding. I hope to be able to band a few birds. However, if the past six months is any indication, it looks as if I will band less than even a few.
Fl'. Normanhas also been transferred from the Mission to Oakland where he will have little time and no opportunity to band birds. So the prospects for our banding station at Santa Barbara are very poor.
I have little news to report that maybe of in t erest to other banders. From the records, I see that Fr. Normancaught three savannah Sparrows which is a bit unusual. During my four year sta.y at. the Mission, I never saw s. single sav- annah Sparrow and I kePimy eyes open for every different species. Another bird that I never saw at the Mission, and which Fr. Normancaught is the Green-tailed Towhee. I was familiar with this bird at San Luis P~y, and I h&venot seen it since. , Dr. Carlton M. Herman, Bureau of Game Conservation, Division of Fish and Ge~e, strawberry Canyon, University of California, Berkeley 4, California is inter- ested in the par~sites thutoccur in birds' nests in California. He would like to have nests sent to him in tight containers, from which the parasites cannot escape, as soon after the young have left the nest as possible and preferably not over six weeks after til&t time. The bird that occupied the nest must be identified for the nest to be of V~o has or hus used these bands? Apparently they were issued to someono, from the Emergency &upply, previous to the inventory of September, 1942, and were not entered in the records. A. bird has been trapped wearing one of these bands. Ba.nder plea.se notify Mr. Httrold Michener, Custodian of the :E1nergencySupply of Bands, 418 North Hudson Avenue, Pasc.denr,4, C£.lifornia. Mr. Irl Rogers, 402 Alturus Avenue, Modesto, California, has agreed to make and distribute l!for the geod ot' the orderlt the traps listed on the back cover. These traps are mnde o.t' 1/2" mesh hardware cloth. Many blUlders are already fam- iliar with them. Mr. Rogers designed both of these traps and he takes the pride of an originatGr in making sure that each trap is in perfect working condition before it is shipped. Orders should be sent directly to Mr. Rogers, with remittances pay- able to him, and they should show the serial number of the Federal Bird-Banding Per- mit of the person sending the order, or a.statement of that person's right to trap birds, in order to avoid any delay while Mr. Rogers checks this point. In undertaking to supply these traps, Mr. Rogers is truly doing a great service "for the good of the order", as he states it. At the prices he has set, there is for him nothing remotely resembling an adequate wage or personal profit, and to balance his books, he Vlill have to cha.rgemost of his time to his "love of the cause" account. NEWS FROM THE BIRD BANDERS Western Bird-Banding Ass'n Mailed from 418 North Hudson Avenue, Pasadena (4), California Send orders and remittances to Mr. Irl Rogers, 402 Alturas Avenue, Modesto, California. Show on order Federal Bird-Banding permit number or a statement of:4 right to use traps, to avoid possible delay in checking this point. // f:6J3. TRAPS PRICES (:1 ! p) Non-Members Member.s of W.B.B.A. Rogers 2-V-Cell, 7~" x 7~" x 71", Door 511 wide. $3.00 $2.50 Improved Modesto Funnel, 2411 x 24" X 8" 4.50 4.00 These traps are made of i" mesh hardware cloth. Many banders are a.lready familia.r with them. Improved entrnnce funnels of Modesto traps make it more diffi- cult for even the smart birds to find their way out. See Page 14. For EMERGENCY SUPPLY OF BANDS and informntion in regard to banded birds found, address Mr. Harold Michener, 418 No. Hudson Avenue, Pasadena 4, California For MEMBERSHIP AND DUES, address Mrs. N. Edward Ayer, Business Manager, 1300 Hillcrest Drive, Pomona, California W.B.B.A. and Cooper Ornithological; Club Associate • • • • • • • • • • • • $1.00 3.50 Active ••• • • • • • • •• 1.00 3.50 Sustaining • • • • • • • . . .. 5.00 7.50 Life (Total, not yearly). • ••• 50.00 125.00 Members outside the United States, add twenty-five cents to the first three items of the last column for additional postage on The Condor. If C.O.C. dues of $3.00 have been paid direct, remit difference to W.B.B.A. Members are urged to suhs.;n-ibeto the quarterly journc:.lBird-Banding pub- lished by the"Northeastern, Eastern and Inla.'1dBird-Bal1di.ngAssociations. This armual subscription, normally $2.50, can be h~d 'qy wembers for $2.00 in addition to allY of the E'bDV8 stated dues. Pleas€; order directly from Charles B. Floyd, TCf-~St'l'er,;:'10 South Streot, Boston, Massachusetts. Issued Quarterly by the Western Bird-Banding Association Editor of the ~ President of W.B.B.A. --- F. G. Crawford Grace Sargent, La Jolla, California 2782 Glen Aven~e, Altadena, Cal~fornia Address all contributions to the ~ to Mrs. M. C. Sargent, P. O. Box 109, La Jolla, California Looking out my window, I see red hibiscus, green lawns, and the blue Paci- fic. The familiar melodies of mockers ring in my ears. My daughter Jean Anne is happily in kindergarten. The exacting pressure of the war years in "'ashington, D.C. seem far behind. The world seems at peace. But the radio and tho newspapers say differently, and my weekly letters from my husband (Lt. Commander USNR) addressed from Bikini Atoll are urgent testi- mony that the days when scientists lived in an ivory tower are past. Now will,y- nilly, we are all a.pa.rt of the dramatic and dangerous era of the present. A world that wants to unite but doesn It quite know how ••• Even we bird banders can no longer scatter. stale bread at traps or feed- ing stations with a clear conscience. The faces of hungry children in other lands rise to haunt us. But fortunately, 8.S in our own diet, plenty of substitutes in other grains and fruits are available. This new book is se.idto be the first book in English on the birds of the wide, island dotted area between Fiji, New Caledonia, and Micronesia. I sent a copy to my husband at Bikini, but haven't seen the book myself. Anyone feel competent to review it? Looking over the issues of the News for the pIlst five years, I realize again what a good job Dean Frank M. Erickson and Dr. Mary M. Erickson have done for us. nord from Mr. Cra.wford tells that Dean Erickson has offered to mail the forms and compile the Annual Reportsf or the \'t. B.B.A. This is a large and exacting job all by itself and the new editor is duly grateful. He hope also that the Ericksons will contribute frequently to the ~ in the future, and are glad for Dean Erick- son's article in this issue. In a 20 acre area are situated several ponds of an average dimension of 75 by 150 yards. The ponds are separated by low levees 10 to 25 feet wide, and in their seusens, a variety of shorebirds feed on these ponds. In the fall nnd winter are Least Sandpipers, the most nUlneroue. Killdeer, ~ilson Snipe, Spotted Sandpipers, and in the spring l"estern Sandpipers. These are the birds most e13.sily trapped. Other birds present in varJing number.s and seasons are stilts, Avocets, Yellowlegs, Phalaropes, Coots and Puddle Ducks, not susceptible to trapping as I do it. Other water loving birds trapped are Pipits, Savanna Sparrows, Lincoln When the rainfall t.otalsup to four inches, usually about the middle of December, these birds scatter to fields and lowlands and, until the surfa.ce freezes-- rare--or dries out, the season is over. The traps used are each one foot high, two feet wide and three feet long. In one corner is an L shaped compartment, or funnel, the entrance to which is six inches wide and the height of the trap. The inside leg of the L, which also is about six inches wide and the height of thl'!trap and oval in shape, is closed at the end except for an opening 2i inches wide and 4 inches high through which the birds pass into the trap. A 2 x 4 foot site is leveled off on the levee on pond shore at the water's edge and the trap is set so that the funnel is just above the wa- ter level but in mud thfit is of a.consistency for probing for food. There is no baiting. A wing is ~__ _, . extended into water too deep for wading. A piece o--f~------W8--t-e-r----- hardware cloth 8 inches wide and 3 or 4 feet long is sufficient here. A similar wing on the shore side, 6 or 8 foet long, discourages them from walking a- round tha.t side. Comparatively few Vlil1 fly over.. These wings are set at a 25 de- gree angle if terrain permits. When a pond is drained u different arrangoment is required. As the water goes down small islands are scattered about and these make sites for the traps, which are set, if possible, fad.ng each other in a z:l gza.gline with the wings connecting the traps in a series of Vs, the wings of one trap ex.tending to the two traps facing it left and right, and so on. As the water recedes further, these islands become dry land and useless. A good motto is "Never in the water, always in the mud." It is desirable to tip the trap so the rear end of it will be dry enough that the birds will not become bedraggled. For reasons of their own, Sandpipers will find spots where they prefer to probe for food, whether it is in a muddy flat or along a shoreline, and when you h8v~ set the trap in his path the bird will work up to the wing and on to the trap. To tt Sandpiper, an obstacle is just an obstacle to be gone through Qr around, and this one is easier to go through than around. Drop door traps are inefficient for Least and Western Sandpipers. They will step over a single wire treadle, wandering in and out of a multiple cell trap without ever dropping a door. Wilson Snipe, Killdeer and Pipits are inclined to be territor··· ial, hence will attack a trapped bird of their own species, making a drop door trap as good as any for them. Str~ight wire traps should.be avoided for all shore birds. Their long narrow wings are easily entangled and broken in these traps. All my traps are made of hardware cloth. Returns are erratic. Some may come back the next year and others skip a year or two. In past years it has been possible to take 50 to 75 per cent of a flock in a day and two or three days of intensive trapping would give a large number of repeats and a close check on returns. But in 1945, a pond had been allowed to dry up and then flood e.gainwithout cleaning, and at the beginning of the banding season, more than half of it was covered b,y a flo~ting mass dense enough to sustain the weight of a Sandpiper, Or' Wilson Snipe, or even a tra.p, but not an operator. This srot proved very attractive to the birds, a~d though the daily catch was little less than average, the flock w(.<.slarger than usual, und the daily percentage was low, cut-- ting down on repeats and IDaking returns later in showing up. Least Sandpipers come in as early as late August and leave generally after the first heavy rains, while Western Sandpipers arrive about April 25 and ar~ gone by about May 10. In the fall of 1941, a small flock of Westerns came in ahead of the Leasts and for a few days, I was taking both species. It is not uncommon but always surprising to have a peep stick up a black leg to be banded in the fall, or a yellow one in the spring. Pipits and Wilson Snipe are at my station from october until April. A dry weather population of 30 to 40 will dwindle to 3 or 4 after a rain storm. Spotted Sandpipers are at this station from late summer until late spring. Killdeer, of course, are here the year round and nest allover tho place. In checking my report to the W.B.B.A. against the consolidated report as published in the News, I find that I band almost all that are reported of five of the species mentioned above, and that shouldn't be so. Coastal mud flats have thou- sands to my hundreds of these birds and there must be some place where they are get- .at-able; and inland every puddle has its birds - and therE: are puddles all about. Ret. & S ecies Total Recv. Least Sandpipers 2,102 78 Western Sandpipers 1,363 3 Spotted Sandpipers 7 28 7 Wilson Snipe 1 5 56 213 17 Killdeer 5 3 30 112 1 Pipits -1. ..1l 129 ...l.2. -90 -75 352 756 -150 4,041 ll9 Least Sandpipers Wilson Snipe - - - - Returns ------Returns - - - - Year Bdd. '32 '40 '41 '42 '43 '45 Year Bdd. '39 '40 '41 '43 '45 1937 84 1 1939 51 2* 2 3 1 1938 67 2* 1940 63 1* 2 1 1939 381 1" 6 5 1941 37 1 1940 450 5 1943 56 1" 2 1941 458 9 1943 632 40" 5 Spotted Sandpipers Pipits 1939 5 1 1 1 1939 64 1* 2 2 1940 6 1 1 1940 11 1941 6 1941 20 4 1942 4 1943 31 3" 1 1943 7 2 * Recoveries " Banded in January, retaken in fall of same year. Western Sandpipers -- Of 530 banded in 1940, one returned in 1941, one in 1942; of 256 banded in 1941, one returned in 1942. Of 112 banded there has been one return. Banded in 1939, it was retaken in 1943. 11."1 Rogers 402 Alturas Avenue Modesto, California (Vol. 21 : 18, june, 1946) 18. PACIFICGtJItLCOLOR- BANDINQPROJECT1946 - 1946 Tile war years were difficult ones for the Gull Project. The summerof 1942, Dr. Tanner' at utah Lake, and Dr. Woodburyand Dr. Sugden at Egg Island, Great Salt Lake were able to continue their intensive banding studies of the California gull as planned. But the abrupt departure. of the Chairman from La Jolla the fall of 1942, and wartime restrictions on both colored and aluminumbands, halted all banding in 194.3. The summerof 194.3, the chairman, now in Arlington, Virginia was able to get out a little publicity on the Project, and to check on records at the U. S. Fish and Wildlife banding files at Patuxent, Maryland. In 1944, Dr. Tanner banded a few gulls at utah Lake. Dr. Woodburyand Dr. Behle shifted banding operations to Farmington Bay in 1944, and continued bunding there in 1945 and 1946.' ' Nestling Western gulls were also banded on four small islands off the cen- tral coast of California in 1944 and 1945. Tilis is an area in which the chairman had long wanted Westerns banded, as a link in the banding chain between the N. Coronado Island, Mexico colony (off San Di'ego) and the lWystack Rock and Three Arch Island, Oregon colonies of Mr. Reed Ferris. Dr. Harold M. Hill and Telford Workdid this banding, and Dr. Hill hopes to band in July '46 for the second year at the ,:FaraUo.n Islands. Dr. Hill is nowLieutenant (jg) at the U. S. Naval Hospital, Oakland 14, California. On February 9, 1946, five days before ret.urning to California, the chair- man made a second -visit to the Patuxent, Maryland Refuge. (On e, slippery, sleety day, with a lively five year old daughter for,comp:1ny). Thanks are due to Mr. Lin- coln, for permission to study the files, and to his assistants, MayThatcher Cooke and her co-worker, for their courtesy and aid L~ checking the gull records. The original 7 nesting colonies marked in 1938 have been increased to 15 (not counting Santa Cruz Island). Total nestling gulls color banded 1942-1945 were 2,482. In addit-ion 520 were aluminumbanded only. The 1,000 California nestlings aluminumbanded in 1946 at Fa:rmingtonBay, Utah, brings this to 1,520. F~r the years 19.38-1945, the number of nestling gulls of three species marked with two color and one aluminumband stands at 14,11.3. In addition (in- cluding 1,000 Californias in 1946) 2,168 nestlings were marked with aluminumbands only. This makes the overall total of nestling gulls bl:nded 16,281. Dr. Tanner, of BrighamYoungUniversity, P~ovo, Utah, writes: "OnJune 27, 1942, we banded California Gulls for the third year. Our banding was not quite as extensive as the .twoprevious years since we onl.v captured and placed bands on .300 gulls. On the right leg, we placed yellow ~~ds above the survey bands, while on the left leg, we placed a red band. In 194.3, we did not band any gulls, but on July 8, 1944, we Vlereable to visit the island and place aluminumbands on 16 young gulls. Weplaced the aluminumbunds 1/'fitha red color band on the right leg, and on the left leg, we placed a yellow band. "In 1945 and again this year, Rock Island used by the gulls, was almost completely inundated because of the high water of the lake. This year the gulls have chosen a new nesting area m;lar the lake - that of a dyke in the cooling reser·,,· voir at the Geneva Steel Plant. I am enclosing a picture of the qyke and the guJ.ls nesting there. I have been in the colony of gulls once this spring and found them to be rather tame. I was able to observe the color bands on manyof the specimens. In fact, I found color bands on twenty-three of the birds • • Further observations on these gulls may throw additional infermation Qn the time and location of the band- ing. We are.going to keep II. close watch on-them." (See footnote, Page 24) Egg Island, Great Salt Lake 1942 - Dr. A. M. Woodbury Dr. Woodbury and Dr. J. W. Sugden of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, banded 1,500 nestling California gulls on June 6, 1942 with red on right leg, yellow over aluminum on left leg. An article on results of the Egg Island banding, by Drs. Woodbury, Behle 'and Sugden, is now in press for the University of Utah Biological Series. As Dr. William H. Behle wrote in the September 1945 News, this artificially formed area about 20 miles southeast of Egg Island had become a popular nesting place for the California gulls, and since it was much more accessible than Egg Island, bf!Ild·- ing operations were continued here. on June 9, 1944, 283 nestlings were color-banded aluminum on right leg, red over yellow on left. In addition, 17 birds were banded with aluminum only. On June 16, 1945, 100 nestlings were color~banded yellow on right leg, aluminum over red on left. In addition, 400 nestlings were banded with aluminum only. For the 1946 banding, Mr. Lincoln ha.d thought he would be able to obtain colored bands, but was unable to do so in time. Dr. Behle reports 1,000 young gulls banded with aluminum only on June 1, 1946. Point Lobos, California - 1944 - Harold M. Hill and Telford Work In two trips to Point Lobos June 18 and July 2, 1944, Dr. Hill and Mr. Work color banded 92 nestling Western gulls with the combination blue over aluminum over white on right leg. In addition, 21 nestlings were aluminum banded only. Because of state park regulations, no further banding could be done here. Santa Cruz Island. California - 1945 - Hill and Work On June 19, 1945, 6 nestlings Westerns were banded with aluminum only here. The nest rocks were being used as a bomb target b,y the air force, so no further bend- ing was possible. On July 15, 1945, 17 nestling Western gulls were color-banded with black over aluminum on right leg, black band on left leg. Special Federal permits were necessary to band here. On June 25, 1945, 174 nestling Western gulls were color-banded white over green on right leg, aluminurni on left leg. In addition, 82 nestlings were alQ~inum banded only. Dr. Hill hoped to band here in JUly, 1946 also, and Mr. Lincoln thought ne could furnish colored bands. Dr. Hill reports that most of the gulls banded were in an area apart from the nesting murres and cormorants, so that the latter species were not disturbed. Beautiful kodochrome movies of the banding were obtained at each of the islands visited. A s the records come in - on both young and adult gulls - our picture of the movement of the birds is filling out. The chairman now has a complete card cat- alogue by number of all survey records received on the project. Sight records are tabulated chronologically. Large scale maps are in preparation for charting of the records. CONTINUE TO WATCH FOR BANDED GULLS. REPORT TO - Mr. M. C. Sargent Chairman, Pacific Gull Project Box 109, La Jolla, California It was by mere chance that "Florida Gal" and I met. She is a rare bird in these parts, althOUgh her country cousins, the Mud Hens, are very plentiful. "Florida Gal", as we named her, is short for Florida Gallinule, which means Little Hen. I came by her through a real estate man who is also interested in birds and who knew that I kept a bird hospital. She had been carried or lost on her way from the river, which was not far away. She did not appear to be ill, but was very tired and very light in weight. I kept her in a large 6 x 6 x 6 foot wire cage that I use as a water trap in my bird banding. I had to hand feed her and she was a very dainty eater. Her throat was long and slender, so she was able to take only the smallest of morsels. I fed her pellets of hamburger, sometimes mixed with a few Millet seeds; I did this about every hour. At first, she would claw me with her long sharp clalls, but she soon learned not to bite the hand that fed her. She became the most docile of birdsjshe was very shy ~J nature and habits; in the cage, she was alvTa.ystrying to hide from me behind any little bit e.fweeds or grass that she could find. .I finally took a wide board and made a lean-tc against the wall of the cage and she used this &5 her retreat and was perfectly happy there. She was strictly a wading bird; we would put her in our fish pool, and she would wad" upon the lily pads but would eventually hide among the reeds and iris. She used h~Jr needlelike claws to climb up banks and over debris. She stood about ten or twelve inches tall and walked like a turkey. She had a mediurrtlong neck and a VCIJ' &lort rotmd tail. Her feet were like n chicken's, but her legs were more slender and graceful. The feet have a long slender claw, which is very sharp on each toe, and these seem to be her only means of defense, and how she could use them! She is a bird of beautifu.l color contrasts and gradation of color. Her back was a ve~J dark greenish brown; her wings were black outlined on the edge with white; underneath the wings wel'e a fev.'black and white streaked feather:::, somewhat like the feathers under the Gambel Quails wing; these feathers were usually concealed. Her head, neck and breast were black. The most unusual and striking, as well as interestir.g thing about her, wrs the very brilliant red bill which exter.ded.back and up to form a high shieldlike frontal piece or high forehead, all of which was of the sl1.mebrilliant color and.t.he same bonelike texture of the bill; this bill and forehead piece were one. Her bill was mediumheavy and mediumlong. The red bill was finished off with a half inch of lovely chartreuse or lime color. Aboveeach knee joint, 'Where the feathers start, was a band or garter of the red and chartreuse combination of coloring to match her bill. The long, slender legs were a lovely soft olive green. She made one think of the tropics. She had her picture taken manyti~~s and was exibited frequently in my bird talks. Needless to say, she always attracted attention with her unusual color- ing. The children loved her and she became very docile. Wekept her six weeks, banded her, then took her to the river where she slipped in amongthe tulies and was out of sight in a matter of seconds. Wemissed her greatly for some time, at least until we had another bird to take her pltl.ce, whic::' is never very long at our house. Guess E. Birchett 202 E. 7th Street Tempe, Arizona Wehave had 6. part of this place since 1900, but not until "Pearl Harbor" have I been able to 11'le here. Then I bought more land until I nowhave 240 acres with about a 20 acre clearing. This land is on a bench about 500 feet above the Rogue River and about a mile south of the IlRogueRiver" Crater Lake-Medfordhighway. To the south of the ranch is a mountain that shades us part of the de.y, especially in winter time. This place is in the transition ZOnEJ &..nd is a Douglas Fir country with somemadrone for Varied Thrushes rtlld Robins. In Klamath Falls, I banded in 1930, ']1 and '32, 1,000 California Gulls with &i1rvey(amuminum)bands. I also teok part in the gull color-banding project. I want to write about banding in Klamath County sometime, Gulls, Owls, Blackbirds, Terns, etc. I banded several hundred Brewer Blackbirds but never had a return so I quit banding them. Here at "Cold Spring Ranch", I have been banding a little ever since Vie came. I work out most of the title and have somefarm work at home. Also, I am t,ry- ing to collect n few birds. A 11 of these activities take some of my time. In my back yard is & cluster of willows that the warblers and other birds love, Dnd I hsyo Ei. seat near where I can watch the warblers and collect s()methat I need. I hlive coJ.·· lected in one day five different warblers; Eastern Orange-crowned, Calaveras, Tc.'lomic.• Audubonand Lutescent. I have a few traps and amhaving fun banding JunC0S, SonR Spa.rrows, Fox Sparrows, Golden-crownedSparrows, GambelSparrows, Purple Finches und. Spotted Towhees in W.B.B.A. traps; Crested Jays and Varied Thrushes in figure-four traps; and House Wrens, Violet-green Swallows and Tree Swallows in nest-box traps. I am building, and hope to hnve Viorkingthis fnll, a house trap, a government spurrow trap (modified) and some trip-doorstep traps. Last winter I was able to band some Varied Thrushes and Purple FinChes, but this year they did not comenear the traps. I was looking over my records back to 1925. Here and at Prospect, I had banded Golden-crowned Spurrows in the fall but not i11the spring, so I was about to tell the world about it. This spring they began coming to my traps lmd I banded roo""€: of them than of any other sparrow. Carl Richa.rdson Trail, Oregon (Vol. 21 : 22, June, 1946) 22. NEW BANDING PERMITS. STILL RESTRICTED At the suggestion of Harold M. Hill, the editor wrote to Mr. Lincoln to find out the present policy of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service in regard to issuance of new banding permits. Mr. Lincoln's reply on April 12, 1946 was as follows: "I regret to report that the policy of the Service continues to restrict the issuance of new banding permits. Shortages of bands are no longer particularly troublesome, but we are seriously handicapped b.Y a shortage of personnel which makes it impossible for us to take on the added volume of work that wauld result from any greatly increased number of stations. "The restriction is not iron-clad, however, and exceptions are made when a prospective cooperator has some particular·project that appears to be worth inves- tigating, or is in a ~articularly favorable position to establish a productive station Frederick C. Lincoln, In Charge Distribution and Migration of Birds Division of Wildlife Research U. S. Department of the Interior MRS. MARGARET M. NICE. CORRESPONDS WITH THE LOS ANGELES CHAPTER (from the minutes of the secretary, Mr. Harold Michener) Mrs. Nice, in her letter of December 1, 1945, told of some of her efforts toward getting international scientific exchange under way again. She also enclosed a letter which Professor Nibe Tinbergen of the Zoological Laboratory, University of Leiden, Holland, had written to her last June. He has done much work and published a great deal on bird behavior. This letter told of their rejoicing at being liber- ated from the Germans, their hardships under Nazi domination, the resistance of the professors to the point of refusing to carry on their functions in order to prevent the Nazification of their university, their being held as hostages, and some being shot; of the ornithological work that some of them carried on in spite of the occu- pation and in some cases in spite of being confined in hostage camps. Professor Tinbergen, while in the hostage camp, prepared for publication a little book on ani- mal sociology and several illustrated books for children of four to ten years; these latter were written and sent as letters to his own children, one page a week. One on the Herring Gull is to be published in English, preferably in this country. In spite of all that they have suffered, Professor Tinbergen is planninf, for the re-establishment of international collaboration of scientists, especially those intere~ted in bird behavior. He says collaboration with the German scientists will have to wait until it is Y~oYm whether there will be a revival of German science and e~en then, the German scientists who sponsored Nazi ideals must be excluded, not from a feeling of revenge, but because it is psychologically impossible for the Al- lied scientists, who have suffered so much at the hands of the Nazis, to meet with them. That he is making progress toward collaboration is indicated by Mrs. Nice's statement that Professor Tinbergen is to start a new lnternation journal, "Acta Ethologica". en May 4, 1946, Mrs. Nice vlt'otefrom North Little Rock, Arkansas, vihere she was visiting her friend, Mrs. Rowland Thomas: "•• This 1s the most wonderful place to study and enjoy· birds. So many birds are banded and so many are historic characters - 4,5,6, and even 10 years old. It would have been fescinating to study the color-banded tits, whose fluffy babes left yesterday, or cld crip (10 year old thrasher with a crippled wing) with his J year old mate, or the Bewick wrens with seven babies, or the bluebirds with two. Also a new Bewick male has just moved in and yesterday started building a nest. • • in one hour he carried eighty-four loads besides having two great chases with Whitey, the father of the seven •• But I am resisting temptation and am watching only the Carolina wrens - A ncient and his bride in the basket on the porch. She came a week ago yesterday and now she has three eggs. They did most of their building on Sunday from 8 - 10, Bride brought 104 loads and Ancient 205, the fastest wilding I Ive ever known " In her letter, Mrs. Nice said in regard to the duck conservation question, that she had been encouraging people to write to Mr. Day, Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, praising him for this stand, and assuring him of support, and also to Senators and Representatives telling them of the perilous condition of the water- fowl and the necessity for curtailment of hunting. With the above title, the January, 1946 number of'IDJ:£ Banding ca.rries an important article by Dr. Harold B. Wood, President of the Eastern Bird Banding Associ- ation. Recognizing the value of the article, with Dr. Wood's cooperation, WE: print a condensation of this article, in order that it may come to the attention of bird banders who may not have easy access to his fuller treatment of the subject. . The need of standard dE'ifinitions of the commonly used group names of young birds has long been recognized •. 'These terms, "nestling", "fledglingn, "juvenile" and \'immature", have often been so loosely or carelessly used that it is often a question ~f what was intended to describe the age or development of a young bird. A nestling is not just "a bird in u nest" or "n bird taken out of u nest" - neither of Which quoted expression relates to its ugo or development. Nor docs the dictionar,y definition of a fledgling, "a bird fully feathered", mean anything. Nor, as has been written, is "e. juvenal is a bird banded in the nest". Banders and ornithologists should use age- group terms to mean something "TCry definite 'in the age of the young bird. The present tendency of writing of the age of a banded bird is to estimate fractions of a year. If the bander simply states it was banded when young, the esti- mate may be a yea.r off schedule. A nestling is but a few days old, a fledgling only 11 few weeks at most, a juvenile may be several months" and an immature f'rom one to a few years, according to the proposed nomenclature. Dr. John W. Aldrich, of the Fish and Wildlife Service, writing for Mr. Lincoln and himself, stated; "We heartily approve·of any attempt to standardize nomenclature of age groups among bird banders, because we have had occasion to wish that such had been the case long ago. The data which we now have in our files would be much more valuable if this had been the case." Dr. Wood perhaps has succeeded in solving the diff'icu1t1~s by. suggesting standard definitions which will include the development of both alt~icial and preco- cial birds. Dwight's groupings, founded upon plumages a.lone, were considered and found adequate for museum collections where series areconsiQered, but for the in- dividual bird trapped for banding, its habits and ability to care for itself deserve considerathm. Dr. ~vood has theref'orf:offered the following definitions for the uge group names of young birds: - Nestlulg - A young bird within and not rea~r to leave the nest. Fledgling - A young bird normally ready or physica.lly able to leave the nest and survive, and still being .:::aredfor by its parents. Juvenile - A young bird out of the nest and ablo to te.ke care of itself, but has not completed the post-juvenal molt. Immature - A bird after completing the post-juvenal molt, but has not acquired the complete adult plumage. Young - A generaliz~d term applied to a bird less than one year old, when a more definite determination of age cannot be made. Frank M. Errickson 165 Foothill Road Santa Barbara, California Since Dean Erickson's review of "Names of Age Groups of Young Birds" was written, Mr. Crawford has called the editor's attention to the following article in the June, 1946 number of ~ Banding Notes, issued by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This pUblication of course has the final say on the matter of labeling young birds. Recently there has been considerable discussion about the use of terms denoting the age of birds at the time of banding. Writers have explained the use of terms so variously that it becomes necessary to define a standard for banders. Un- less there is uniformity in the use of terms, all designations of age below adult be- come useless. The subject of the age of birds at banding is becoming increasingly important since the volume of returns has become sufficient to allow serious longevity studies. Also studies regarding the retur:n of birds to their birthplace can be made only when the birds are known to have been banded as juveniles as here defined. Juvenile - (abbreviation, jUv.) A young bird not yet independent of its parents. This may be broken dcvm into: Nestling (nstl.) - A bird still in the nest. Fledgling (fldg.)- A bird out of the nest but still cared for b,y its parents and with its plurr~ge still definitely juvenile. For precocial species that have no nest life, downy young (dy. yg.) should be used instead of nestling. Immature (im.)- From the time the young bird becomes independent until the end of the season in which it is hctched, or until it assumes adult plumage in the post-juvenal molt. Sometimes it is possible even then to distinguish birds of the year, in which case they should be labeled Itimlt•Somo birds will be caught in the fl:.11and early winter that the bander may conclude to call probe im., or leave blank or (?). In the case of birds that do not acquire fully adult plumage until more than a year old (e.g., redstart, orchard oriole, gulls, etc.), the age should be givon in years as nearly as possible. For a bird a yea.r old thB.twill not a.ssume fully adult plumage until its second autumnal molt, the term sub-adult has been suggested but has not yet been generally adopted. . Dr. Tanner has published two notes on his gull banding and records in the Great Basin Naturalist (June 30 '41 and Dec. ~3 '42) and expects to have a third out soon. NEWS FROM THE BIRD BANDERS Westet'ftBird-Banding Ass 'n Mailed from 418 North Hudson Avenue, Pasadena (4), California Send orders and remittances to Mr. Irl Rogers, 402 Alturas Avenue, Modesto, California. Show on order Federal Bird-Banding Permit number or a statement of right to use traps, to avoid possible delay in checking this point. TRAPS PRICES\FOB'UODESTO) Non-Members Mcmbar.s of W.B.B.A. Rogers 2-V-Cell, 7~1l x 7!" X 7!1I, Door 511 widt:,. $.3.00 $2.50 Improved Modesto Funnel, 24" x 24" x 8" 4.50 4.00 These traps al'e mhde of i" mesh hardware cloth.' Mf.l.nybanders are already familiar with them. Impl'oved entrance funnels of Modesto traps make it more diffi- cult for even the smart birds to find their way out. See Vol. 21:14, March, 1946 For EMERGENCY SUPPLY OF BANDS cl!ld information in regard to banded birds found, address Mr. Harold Michener, 418 No. Hudson Avenue, Pasadena 4, California For MEMBERSHIP AND DUES, address Mrs. N. Edward Ayer, Business Manager, 1300 Hillcrest Drive, POlnona, California W.B.B.A. and Cooper Ornithological Club Associate • • • • • • •• $1.00 3.50 Active ...... • • • 1.00 3.50 Sustaining • • • • • •• 5.00 7.50 Life (Total, not yearly) ••• • • 50.00 125.00 Members outside the United States, add twenty-five cents to the first three items of the last column f?r additional postage on The Condor, If C.O.C. dues of $3.00 have been paid direct, remit difference to W.B.B.A. Members are urged to subscribe to the quarterly j ournc.l Bird-Bf..ndingpub- lished by the Northeastern, Eastern end Inland Bird-Banding Associations. This annual subscription, normully $2.50, can be hed ~r members for $2.00 in addition to any of the above stated dues. Pleas€: order directly from Chl::\rlesB. Floyd, Treasurer, 210 South street, Boston, Massachusetts. Issued Quarterly by the Western Bird-Banding Association President of W.B.B.A. --- F. G. Crawford 2782 Glen Avenue, Altadena, Californla Address all contributions to the ~ to Mrs. M. C. Sargent, P. O. Box 109 La Jolla, California Hooper Medical Foundation personnel of the University of California under the guidance of Dr. W. McD. Hammon and Dr. W. C. Reev(~s in the past five years have been studying the epidemiology of Western equine encephalitis, commonly known as sleeping sickness. That the virus causing this illness is transmitted by a common mosquito Culex tarsalis has been established. As yet no reservoir vertebrate host for the virus has been discovered, but both birds and mammals have been suspected. During 1946 an attempt hao been made to learn something of the feeding habits of mosquitoes as related to birds. The virus is too small to be seen and may only be isolated by complicated h.boratoIJi't<;;::hniques.Howover, there are bird para- sites which can be seen and which are carried b.Y the same mosquitoes. These are protozoa that infest red and white ce:lls of the blood; in uther words bird malaria. By staining thin smears of blood thes(~ protozoa mn;r be seen under the microscope and can be identified. OUr problem, then, has been to determine the incidence of bird malaria among wild birds so as to find what species are regularly bitten by mosquitoes. With this tool it may then be possible to narrow the possibilities of animals that might act as encephalitis reservoirs. But this was only one phase of the problem. We wanted to know what species nested abundantly in areas of known high encephalitis endemicity and also what were the seasonal population trends, habitat relutionships, ~d summer range of individuals. Admittedly this was a large order, sipce in addition we wished to isolate nest parasites and determine if they were carrying the virus. Some of the results of the study up to July 26, 1946 are listed in the ac- companying table. OUr methods have been relatively simple. We have four study areas in the district, and at these as well as along the roadsides to and from them we tally ~ll individuals seen. At five farmyards near Shafter, at a large olive grove near Bakersfield, and at the Kern River Park we set up nest study areas. Here we attempted to find all of the nests. When nestlings were seven days old we banded them and took a drop of blood from a toe ~~ clipping the nail. With most species we did not disturb them again, but house finches and English sperrows were abundant and we were especiall~r interested in them, so a second smear was taken two or four de.ys n.fter the first. Further, we have been trapping continuously in an effort to retake banded birds for further blood examinations. As we now have over 2000 smears and examining the slides is slow and tedious, we do not have complete data on the presence of malaria. Let me remind the reader that bird malaria is caused by several species of Plasmodium but not ty the ones producing human malaria. It appears that malaria among wild birds, espaci- a.lly house finch and English sparrow, is widespread and common. To d[' to we have banded 1,788 birds of 36 species. The mest abundant species have been house finch, English sparrow, and the three blackbirds, but our blackbird trapping has not been successful. The Bullock Oriole is not numerically important in the total population, but is easily enticed with watermelon, so we have taken numbers of them. A yellow-headed blackbird colony in a farm reservoir furnished us'with a nice series of nests a.ndyoung. Tricolor nesting was not ver-J successful in our study area because a black-cro~vned ni~lt heron colony preyed upon the young. l~ch biological datu of interest has been accumulated but i£ not yet summarized. List of species banded in the Bakersfield area. other data includes nesting, blood smears, and population counts. As of July 26, , 1946 NO. OF BIRDS NO. OF BIRDS NO. BLOOD NO. OF COUNTED BANDED SMEARS TAKEN NESTS OBSERVED TO 6/ro 534 184 319 107 284 223 2,336 23 1,278 23 7,033 23 506 93 732 239 399 53 556 79 27. (Vol. 21 September, 1946) NO. OF BIRDS NO. OF BIRDS NO. BLOOD NO. OF NESTS COGNTED UP SPECIES BANDED SMEARS TAKEN OBSERVED TO 6/~o (Captives Sacred Dove released) 5 7 I 6 Ash throated Flycatcher 5 5 1 82 Mockingbird 4 4 .3 239 Goldfinch 4 4 4 247 Barn Owl 3 .3 I 19 Meadow Lark J 3 2 927 Song Sparrow 2 2 55 Red'Shafted Flicker 2 2 114 1 Gambel's White Crown Sparrow 1 296 Golden Crown Sparrow 1 1 3 Western Bluebilod I 1 1 151 American Bittern I 1 1 Green Backed Goldfinch I I I 169 Chinese Spotted Dove 1 1 4 Black Chinned Hummingbird 6 354 Rock Wren 1 125 Coot 1 239 others, 67 species 4,715 We are particularly anxious to learn something of the fall dispersal of birds from this end of the San Joaquin Valley and would greatly appreciate it if othen California banders would be on the lookout for "foreign" birds. Any such bends could! be reported directly to us (as well as to Washington) and we could determine whether they were from our series. H. Elliott McClure Box 292, Station A Bekersfield, California (Editor's note: The following letter was written to Mr. Michener on June 5, 1946, from Bethel, Alaska, where Mr. Kyllingsta.d and his family were staying for about six weeks. Bethel is on the Kuskokwim River, about 100 miles south of Mr. Kyllingstad's residence at Mountain Village, or the Yukon River.) "•••1 have done almost no banding since last fall. I did get a very few snow buntings at Mountain Village in April and! have banded one pectoral sandpiper here. I have been interested in comparing th~ arrival da~es of birds here and at MOlmtain Village. Many species arrive a good bit ahead here, which surprises me be- ca.use t,hedistance is only about a hundred miles greater, and I had thought that at the limits of their ranges birds covered many miles inn day or so. Gambel sparrows arrived on May 10 and were cOllunonon MEl.y17. They ure not so numerous as at Mountain Village, nor are they so confiding. Over there they dart under the;board walk· and out again almost directly underfoot. Here they stay well back in the :brush, and only occasionally do they venture right out into the village. On the other hand, the robins, which at Mt. Village are quite secretive and shy, are here as bold as {l.thume in Dllkota. Thero is a.nest in the eaves trough just beside a down spout that is flooded every time lie haiTE::n shower (which according to certain chambers of conunerco occurs oftenor hore than B.tcert.!dn (...ther places), but the old bird sits as unconcerned in wet as jn drJ weathor. ArlO~ler nest is just a- bove the storm shed dOClr B.tthe community hall in the center of town. ThfjI'eare no hills here and the town is right on the edge of the tunclra. Up river to the east there are alder, willow and spruce. The spruce reach to the to\msite and a very few lone ones grow downstre£J.mfrom it. Down river to the west and also back of the village to the north the tundra rolls R\"'aJ" ~s far as you can see. There are m&ny marc of the shore birds here as a result. Western sandpipers sing over the village and court in all the yards. A pair of'semipalmated plovers have tr.kenup territory on a little used driveway (there are several cars and tl~cks in this metro- polis of 400 souls) beside the Government school where we stay, and they wake us every morning with their noise. - Out on the tundra ridges we h&ve a few black-b0l1ied plovers. At the air field just at the west edge of tQvm there are ~ few scrubb,ywillows growing on some low bunks about a group of little ponds. Here Alaska yellow wagtails are nesting I am sure... I could get anJ'number of desirable specir."lenshore right now, but I want to try for nest pictures of several things and 0.0 not want to cancel out any possible nesters. We got a 16 rom movie outfit last Septcmner ~ld these birds will make mighty interesting SUbjects if I can ma.ke the camera behccve rigr.t. The trees and grass are just bl:girming to look green. The migrtttion is ~.bout all Qver except that the black brant [,nd scoters Ere still coming in. The flight of brant is VE.ry light here compared Vlith the Yukon. Thcrt: we see huge flocks of them following the ice downstream. But all three seoters miBrate down this river in good numbers. Some of our earliest floT/ers are now blooming. In Ii week everything will be very green Hnd the grass will be nt:arly knee high. The start is slow, but after the first gre..-:ll,shows it seems to explode. The green i.sso intensely vivid tht-itI doubt if even California can match it. 29. (Vol. 21 September,. 1946) The sun set tonight at ten ten. It will rise at about two. The birds are not all still at any time now. Thrushes and H.olboe1.lgrebes call all night long. And last week I saw ~ first song sparrow in Alaska after hearing it sing almost all night. Henry C. Kyllingstad Mountain Village, Alaska Mr. Harold J. Brodrick, at Yellowstone National Park, in replJr to Mrs. /\yerI s expressed curiosity in regar,d to a pair of Trumpeter Swans which she saw in the Park in July, 1941 replied that he imagined the pair seen were on Swa.nLake and that pro- bably they are still there. We summarize further information he gave rArs. Ayer. The swan census in 1941 gave a total of 59 Trumpeters, 44 adults and 15 young, in the Park. Most of these frequent the more isolated lakes where few are seen by visitors. In the sc.uneyear the total census of Trumpeters in the United States was 208. Most of those found outside of the Park were on Red Rocks Lake Re- fuge west of the Park and a few on two smaller refuges, and the areas adjacent to them. The next census, in 1944, again gave the total in 'OlePark as 59, of Which 48 were adults and 11 young; for the U. S. the total was 279. This was a nice in- crease. Most of the additional birds were found on the Red Rocks Lakes Refuge and lakes adja.cent to it. No census was taken in the Park in 1945 but the SWl:m population on lakes visited in other routine work seemed to be about as usual. It is doubtful if the Park census will ever be much larger than the present totals. Although there are many small lakes in the Park most of them are unsuitable for swan because of lack of food or due to the elevation. The swan must start nest- ing before the winter ice leaves many of the lakes and again the lakes freeze over in the fall before the cygnets are able to fly out of them. Many of the lakes in more satisfactory elevations lack the proper food plants and suitable nesting sites. Other factors enter into the seeming high mortality of young birds. Also, many of the adult population are not breeding birds. A few swans winter in open water in the park while others probably go a little south in Wyoming and Idaho in Snake River areas. Mr. Brodrick says he has not been able to do much bird banding as there is not a satisfactory location near either his office or his residence and, also, the deer that hang around make pests of themselves. Anything kept out of their way must be under fence. The swallows are a great joy. The swallow house faces all of our main windows. It is on an upright galvanized pipe out in the open, tho there is some shrubbery nearby, which of course they ignore. The pipe is hp-ld firmly by a hori- zontal wire tied out in two directions, which wire serves for a perch. A pair of Tree Swallows have used this house each year since we have lived here. Viehave band- ed the babies until this last year when they gave us the slip before we thought they were ready. We ta.kedown the house each winter to discouragf:lthe English Sparrows but a.lways get it up again before March 12 or 13 when we expect the Swallows back. This year our spring was even earli~r than we had realized ~d n pair of Tree Swallows arrived and excitedly circled the pole on March 9, and I rushed a friend who was here to put up the house. All the while he was working they flew around his head and the minute he got down from the ladder they were.in the house. They, or at least a pair of Tree Swallows, have been in quiet possession ever since, or at least almost quiet. After building their nest they went on a vactLtion as·they ha.ve done in previous yeRrs. We always seem to have a few days of stormy wec.ther in April and the Swallows seem to disappear; at least they are not around the house during those several days, at which the English Sparrows take 'over and I spend my sparo time and more in throwing rocks at them. This time when the Swallows returned ~nd found Englishers ensconsed, Mr. Swallow caught Mr. Englisher in midair b,y th~ nape of the neck and car- ried him to the ground and pommelled him for several minutes. It did my heart good. The swallows have been in residence ever since. Early in May Mrs. Swallow a.cted as if she were caught in her front door and wriggled and cried as if she were being hurt. When she flew away Dale climbed up to see if anything were in thE;house that could have been attacking her, but the nest was intact and empty. We were surely su~prised to find no eggs as she had been sitting in the box for days. How~ver on June 1st we discovered her feeding babies. I hope we'll be smart enough and timely in our efforts to band the babies this year • • I think we wrote other years on our observations of the f~mily life of the Swallows and of the love triangle ono year. l~so during the first two years Virginia had to clean house for them after the death of a couple of their infants from filth and maggots, and in each case the romaining yo~~g ones were raised successfully. Two years ago the male brought a gray female instead of a blue one, the first time we had seen gra')'ones in March, tho' they are very evident in midsummer when the birds of the year are on the w~ng. I discussed it with George Willet that spring and he said he didn't remember seeing a gray one in the spring. But that little gray felllLlewas an immaculate housekeeper and we saw her carry away the feces. Last year the house was fairly clean but only two of the eggs hatched so they weren't so busy. Perha.ps the swallows of the first two years were of a diffe~ent level of society and were involved in so many extraneous love affairs that they didn't have time for such things as cleaning house. I have also seen the pre2ent pair cleaning hou~e. The story is told up here of a man riding the bus who was telling his seat- mate that he had cleaned up his little house and had it all ready for occupancy but no tenants had applied. When he got off the bus, half a dozen men followed him, each ana wanting to know about renting his house. Obi It was a swallow-house 1 Mrs. Harlan Edwards 3509 LaurelhuI'st Drive Seattle 5, We..shington MRS. LASKEY DESCRIBES ROBIN ROOSTS IN TENNESSEE (from the Los Angeles Chapter Minutes) Mrs. Amelia R. Laskey, NashVille, Tennesee, on April 7, wrote to Mr. Michener about the "tall tales II of Robin roosts of which she had previously hinted. She also sent a copy of the December issue of~ Migrant which described the roost at Nashville and the one at Martha, Tennessee some 21 miles away. It also contained a report by Mrs. Laskey of her observations during 1945 on 10 Mourning Dove nests. Of the Robin roosts she wrote: "•••However, I might have written a slightly different version (from that in the Migrant) for I saw the Robin roost at its pe8.k on January 13th when my estimate soars to a million. It was stupendous. I was on a hill, and had found a 'perch' to stand on as the birds were coming that evening at early dusk. Even then all the trees were covered thickly with the birds as well as the ground and the thick under- brush in the valley and on the surrounding hills ••••the sky was completely filled with the incoming birds as far as the eight power binoculars could penetrate the horizon on all sid~s. Of course, it is impossible to count such a conglomeration and ~ million is only a guess. I also saw the Martha, Tennessee roost of mixed species which some of the old times estimate as a million, plus, but it, large as it was, did not come up to the Robin roost on the l3th ••••By the end of January the number coming into the roost had dwindled to about 2,000 Robins and an equal number of Starlings. What had become of the vast hordas, it is impossible to s&y. That is where some cooperative obser- vations in both north and south would be helpful. Of course, if it had been possible to bmd a few hundred or thousand of them •••there might bo some clues in the recoveries. Yet with all those thousands passing overhead each morning 13.ndevening on the way to the roost, and tho many hundreds that gle<-.nedtIlE.;htlckberrios from the trees a.tthe banding station, :c did not trap ;;;.single bird. I did have the good fortunB to h&ve Robin one-eye and his colorbanded mate of 1945 come to the window for raisins on Decembt::r27, 1945, after a.bsence during the 8.utunm. He was killed by n dog (from the evidence) on March 24, 1946, and she was not seen after early March." Dr. Charles Michener, son of Mr. anG Mrs. Harold Michener of Pasadena, told the Los Angeles Chapter meeting of March 10, 1946 about the birds he saw in Panama during the 14 months he was there studying Chiggers for the Ar~. As part of this work he examined s~veral individuals of some 50 species of birds and found chigger larvae <;>n them in varying abundance. The flycatcher gruup seemed to be particulurly favored as hosts. By this means and b,y observations in the field he gleuned a considerable knowledge of the birds of the region. The large number of birds there from eastern North America .during the north- ern winter is striking, Tanagers, Warblers, large numbers of hawks in migration, etc. There are many species of small Tanagers that look like sparrows; Blue Tanagers that are the most common birds in PElnama City; both black and Turkey Vultures seen in the air at any time; a King Vulture reported to him soaring over the Chegres River; Frigate Bires, the most wonderful soarers he has seen; Anhingas, Jacenas, Gallinules, etc. along the river; Trogans, Tucans; Guans on Barro Colorado IslMd but largely extermin- ated as a food bird elseWhere; Tinamous, like a quail without a crest and with a won- derful, tremulous whistle heard both day and night; many Hummingbirds; many Doves and Pigeons, Ground Doves very common; Parakeets in flocks like Waxwings, which destroy fruit and buds of fruit trees; Parrots; Mockingbirds, like ours, but not singing much, probably because of little competition for territories. Mockingbirds are cOTQffionresi- dents both north and south of Panama but there is some doubt wheth(:lrthose in Panama are native or introduced. The Blue-black Grassquit is common and is the most common cage-bird of Panama. One interesting phase of the past year of limited bird activities was the local nestings. Neighbors on our lane had a neat of canyon wrens, within easy reach in a low-ceilinged garage. This was early in May, the brood le~ving about M&y ZOo About this same.time we found an Empidonax, also within arm's reach, in our garage, seated on a nest. The nest was wedged between e.nupright post and a diagonal brace. The post was being bumped b.1the station wagon door sever&l times a d&y but the flycatcher (pl:obablywestern) sat unperturbed. On May 30 three eggs were observed (whitish with scattering of brown specks, and especially round or spherical ruther than long and oval). By June 2 they had he.tched. In ..the n0xt two vvecks their growth was phenomene.l, as though three small drcps of dough had risen !lrldfilled £ crock to overflowing. They were fed but, excnpt at first, appar~mtly not otherwise attended by the parents. They derived their warmth from one anotil~r. On June 16 two wcrf:)banded (one eluded capturo). On June 30 the Slimenest was reoccupied by apparently the same flycatch6r (cn' pair). By July 4 there were three eggs (just as before). Again they grew to over-flowing and by July 28 were gathered into a cage, banded and cc.refully returnGd to t.henest. However they left that same da:r, two of them flying approximately 35 ftH!t to h.nd on a brush covered bank across the lane from the garage door. Two other observations: On July 4, 1945, a unique scheme of bathing used by a S&n Diego Song Sparrow. It had landed on a pond lily leaf in the fish pond, but finding no suita.ble bath wa.ter,jumped suddenly into the air, coming down nbroptly, stiff legged, and repeating tho jump until water began to seep over the edge of the leaf, finD-lly providing sufficient water for a good splaBh-bath. Also, commencing December 15 but extending into January, 1946 was an invasion of robins into this can- yon. They worked as a flock, foraging mostly for toyon berries. Hn.tch Grahflm 10300 Viret.taLane Los Angeles 24, California "What a perfectly adorable little bird!" I exclaimed when I saTIthe baby Baltimore Oriole which young John Kraai, a boy scout and our near neigpbor had brOUght. "He is hungry" said John nand he says his name is "Petey Dink". And sure enough, the little chap vIas saying "Pe-tee-dink, Pe-tee-d.ink" over and over, the while he flut- tered his pretty wings and kept his mouth wide open, c~Jing continuously. We at once christened him "Pete" although lattJrwe changt"::dthe name to P'::.triciaw(~ still called her Pete. We took Pete into our home and into our hearts as well; she wa$ about two weeks old, the natal down had been replaced by the juvenal coat of soft yellow\and brown and she was about three inches in length. We had brought up several helpless young robins, and had cared for an injured cedar waxwing for four weeks until he was able again to care for himself, but we knew nothing about attending to the wants of a baby Oriole. We did know however, that aside from their gorgeous plumage and melodious song the Baltimore Oriole waS worth saving on account of its economic worth as 83% of its diet consists of animal food: hairy caterpillars and other caterpillars, leaf- eating beetles, wasps, rose bugs, spiders, plant lice, scale insects, marsh flies and crane flies. The Black Tartariancherries were ripe, and beneath the tree were flies in plenty. We began to forage for them; Pete took them ravenously, and the first day ate one-hundred and nine, the following day seventy-nine flies disappeared dOVIllher throat with little bits of cherry for dessert yet at night when she sat on my thumb I could tell that she weighed less than she did the preceding day. Clearly. we had net hit upon the proper diet for our little protegee. The next day we bought some Defiance Mockingbird Foud at a.pet shop; this is an ideal food for wild birds as it provides the necessary protein. We mixed this with milk and placed it carefully back in Pete's throat, using a little spatula. Yolk of hard-boiled egg and bits of cherry and mulberries varied the diet which was most acceptable to Pete who thrived on it. Each feeding Vias followed by water given from a medicine dropper, this was necessarJ as the art of drinkulg is not instinctive in a bird. For threE;weeks she was fed every hr..lfhour during thE;day which for Pete and ill !!!Lbegan early; she would call me at dawn, I WGuld get up and feed her, go back to bed, and in a half hour be up again for another sassi.onwi'::'hPete, the spatula and medicine dropper. As sh~ cried before each feeding and all the time during the meal, it was a nervous job, and I was always glad when a soft "peep-peep-peep" like that of a sleepy little chicken told me that she wa.s satisfied. When she was five weeks old, she discovered her tongue, up to that time ly- ing unnoticed and useless in her lower bill. How happy she was! I saw her take the first swallow of water from her dish, rolling it around in her beak and letting it run down her throat, tippi,ng her head back as if in thankfulness. from that time on she was independent, what a varied diet she enjoyed, and .how she thrived! She would eat anything we put into her cage. Peas she would eat in rota- tion from the pod, which she would hold to the perch with her feet end deftly open. When first given a leaf of lettuce, she held it against her perch and promptly pierced it with her beak, then spread her bill, tearing it into shreds and eating it. A sil·- vel' thimble made her a fine drinking cup, filled with milk wld handed to her, she would clamp it to the perch and daintily drink the milk, finding it "good to the last drop". Pete had a number of "tricks in her bag" and furnished us with plenty of amusement. ~e found during that first winter that she could see pictures on a flat page (something a cat cannot do). We held up to her a picture of a bluebird two- thirds life size, in color; she sidled up to it and gave it & vicious peck in the eye; twice she did this, then became "wise"and went sulkily up on her porch. We laid the colored picture of a butterfly on the bottom of her cage; she darted do~~ and tried to grab it between the wings. Repeating the attack, she discovered cur trickery and backed away from it, the desire for a butterfly dinner had left her, and she looked as disgusted as no doubt she felt. She loved to visit with the "bird" she saw in the small mirror we would sometimes set up in her cage, and would slyly peek behind it, then run around back of it, trying to contiict the pretty little plaJrfellcVlshe felt sure was there. Sometimes Mr. Pugsley would hand her a quarter, and she would hang on to it like a little old miser. She loved still better the glitter of gold, and one ,day he hung his heavy gold band ring on the end of one of the perches in the large winter cage which he had made for her of chicken wire. This perch stuck out of the cage about an inch and a half; Pete wanted that ring badly and finding that she could not get it by sliding it toward the cage, she put her head through the large mesh, took the ring in her beak, then holding it tightly, she slid it off from the end of the perch and brought it into her cage in triumph. Some problem for a bird to solve, she was quite an engineer, we t~ought. In late February of her first year Pete began to moult, her room seemed full of fluffy feathers, she seemed to have no trouble getting rid of them but the wing feathers came harderl She would take a firm hold on one, and with a sharp quick yank, pull it out and throw it to the bottom of her cage as if glad to be rid of the pesky thing. Generally we found that she had plucked the same number from each wing. Upon examining them we"found them to be delicate and satiny with White quills, strong and sharp-pointed like a fine needle. It was interesting to see the new plumage take the place of the old, very gradually she changed her dress until she emerged, not in the shining black and brill- iant orange of Lord Baltimore, but in the more sedate g&rb of the Lady instead. Lovely golden-yellows and soft browns formed a sleek smooth coat like satin which she kept well groomed; her lithe slender body when full grown was about seven inches in length. She was good-nttured and lovonble, a fine songster with a voice softer than that of the male. She sang a typical Oriole song, rare and sweet, with a variety of not~s whistles and calls, winding up with IIsweetie-sweetie-sweetl" She sang mostly in early spring, seldom at any other season, although she W&s ready to talk to us at any and all times. Toward the last of April of har first year and ab~lt that time each of the four years she lived, we noticed when we went in to look at her (as we always did) be- fore retiring, that her wings were Whirring rapidly like those of a hummingbird, and she was rlmning along on the perch from one end "j:.othe other of her large cage, utter- ing at intervals a shrill call that we had never heard her give 1;lefore;h6r eyes were wide open, but she was not conscious of our presence, in fact did not see usl She seemed many miles away! It seemed uncanny, we were puzzled and worried. Afte;;rwatch- ing her for several nights it dawned upon us that little Pete w~s migrating and such this nj.ght-flying proved to be, for e&ch spring she did the same thing, keeping it up for about three weeks, only stopping when the Orioles arrived in early May (usually the tenth in tho northern part of Western New York State, near Rochester). In the fall a similar spell would sieze her, but it would lnst only 0. few nights, for they feed up for their fall journey (this she did also), and with their engine well IIstoked", go down in a few days, not needing to feed on the way; but in the vernal migration they fly nights, stopping to feed daytimes as they come north, taking about three weeks for the trip. As we watched Pete in these migrating "spells", vw rc&lized the.theredity is stronger than envionment in the life of a bird, and that all the naturt1l tondencies of the Oriole tribe are inherent in our bird, even thOU~l she is removed from all her kind, for generations unnumbered theJr have como nerth from Gentre.l America and Mexico where they Winter, making their long, hnzaruous pilgrimage flying by night, cc:.llingout to keep track of the flock, feeding by day, comi.ng ever nearer the ph.ce wh~,re they love to nest and rear their families. Little Pote fh,w hard and long, but each morn- ing fourd her in the old familiar place, the exertion of tho night was forgotten, and Sh'3 v:as !'e~:1~r to sts.rt in eagerl;)"on her ff.' We had thcught thst she Vlvuld hCE.d the "c&.ll()fthe ydld" findflyaway, but she had no idea of such a thing. No! She cared nothing for the bltmdishments of Lord Baltimore, she much preferred her state of single blessedness. In like manner she refused simil~r propvsals each spring, and one summer day she saw what she had missed, for an old "Dadd;y"Oriole came with his twc pretty youngs- ters to dine in the cherry tree, ~d one of the littl~ onos flew down und flattened itself on the side of her cRge, but Pete never blinked un eye, ro1dmade no comment! Although Pete showed no inclination to raise a family~ and never to our knOWledge laid an egg, about the time the Orioles were building their nests a desire to make one would sleze her; she would fly to my head and tug until she had loosened a bill full of hairs, and taking them into her cage would weaVe thum about the wires. String and colored wool she would use tou, &nd she was especially fond of red yern. She was e.weaver bird all right, but she never shaped 0. nest. It is claimed that the male does not h0lp with the building of the clever gourd-shaped d(lmicile, but maybe he does have a "bill" in it after all, or perhaps he gets out the blue-prints. Early in June we noticed that Pete had shed her long toen~ils; we wondered if some foot disease could have attacked her, but she was too happy and lively for that. Looking closely at her feet we saw that tiny nails were forming, and thought that Mother Nature was preparing her fer brooding bab,y birds, that the long sharp toenails would endanger the fledglings. After the nesting season they grew long again very promptly. This occurred each year at tho same time. The last spring that Pet6 lived I use to go into her room and spend an hour or so lying on the day bed, first opening her cage, giving h6r the freedom of the room. She delighted to fuss around and would play until tired, when she would come and park herself on my arm, pull one little foot up unde~ her, and take a siesta too. It must have been that Pete was getting old, but we did not ref.:.lizeit, V/f:; Sc\::medto th~k th!Ct w€> sh(fllld always have her with us to furnish us with 11 bit of' sunshine on gloomy day~' • Four years almost to the day from tke tiJpeJ~ brought her to us Pete Oriole's life story was ended. Quite suddenly from n~ a.ppraent cause, she tell over, 4ead. Evidently this is the way with many of the small birds, life to the full for the allotted time, usually about four years, then the tiny engine stops and the world is poorer and a little less gay for their passing. Dear little Pete, she had a happy and care-free existence, and taught us much of bird lore not to be found in books. Mrs. Frank W. Pugsley Pittsford, New York (Editor's note: Some of the material in this story was published in the August '45 issue of Flower Grower, and is reprinted here with the permission of the editor, Mr. Paul Frese. See also the discussion of "Migratory Fever" by Frt.nk and Mary Erick- son in the September '45 News.) ""'-;WS FROM THE BIRD BANDERS Western Bird-Banding Ass1n. Mailed from 418 North Hudson Avenue, Pasadena (4), California For EMERGENCY SUPPLY 01" BANDS and information in regard to banded birds found, address Mr. Harold Michener, 418 No. Hudson Avenue, Pasadena 4, California For MEMBERSHIP AND DUES, address I Mrs. N. Edwa rd Piyer,Business Manager, 1300 Hillcrest Drive, Pomona, California W.B.B.A. and Cooper Membership W.B.B.A. Ornithological Club Associate • • • • • • • • • • • • $1.00 3.50 Active • • • • • • • • • 1.00 3.50 Sustaining • • • • • • • • • • • •• 5.00 7.50 Life (Total, not yearly). 50.00 125.00 Members outside the United sta tes, add twenty-five cents to the first three items of the last column for additional postage on The Condor If C.O.C. dues of $3.00 have been paid direct, remit difference to W.B.B.A. Members are urged to subscribe to the quarterly journa.lBird-Banding pUb- lished ~J the Northeastern, Eastern and Inland Bird-Banding Associations. This annual subscription, normally $2.50, can be had by members for $2.00 in addition to any of the above stated dues. Please order directly from Charles B. Floyd, Treasurer, 210 South Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Issued QU1irterly by the ~estern Bird-Banding Association President of W.B.B.A. --- F. G. Crawford ~732 Glen Avenue, Altadena, California Address all contributions to the News to Mrs. M. C. Sargent, P. O. Box 109 La Jolla, California Probably I had not thought of him consciously all during the war years, but when I opened the August f 46 Chien@. Natura.list and saw the photograph of his t1 intent young face and the dates "1914 - 1942 ~ the shock was as keen as if he stood before me. Just when did he visit us in La joll&? In 1940 it must hCivebeen, and Laidlaw Williams or the Micheners must huve been the friends who sent him our way. All the details have gone - just the vivid memoryof a. t:dl, l€:an young man,•.full of awareness of all living things, full of friendliness f·nd vitEtlity. Ml.rgaret Morse Nice gives the me~,gE.rf'..cte of his de£~th, thus belatedly disclosed to us. Jen Joost ttI' Pelkwti<, lJ'Utch N::.turl.list, shot by the JC.p/;;.nE,sein 1942, near Batl.1via. She includ8~ his lr st lettt;r to bird friends in NewYork, writ- ten in 1941. It d6scribes the wild lift; of Btt:::.via, <-.ndis illustr~.ted with bvely clear little drb-wings of the birds end rnimals. • • October, 1946 issue, second p<-.ge"The SeptembE::rissue of NEViSFROMTHEBUm- BANDERS(Western B.B.A.) conkins c. p!ge from our membE;)rend former North Dekotf:. bender, H. K. Kyllingstrd, who hc:s been in A18.skLthe lL,st four yea's; hr;lf (1 p(;.ge from !'Ill'S. Laskey of Nashville, Tennessee; three Lnd ( ht-lf prges froITllViI's. Frfonk W. Pugsley, Pittsford, NewYork. G:..n't we move rnother step Lnd put out one news letter for ~ll benders?1l One evening in October, "bout 7 P.M., my husbE.nd (:nd I were sitting quiE::tly reading in our living room, whEmthere .;'as E;. fluttering z..t thE:;front door screen. I went to the door but Sf;W nothing. Almost immedi[t81y [:ftf-:,rwrrd there 'li[H, o. flutter- ing at the back door screen. WhenI opened the screen door [ bird f10w into the hOUSE.• It W(.S tc felhf.,le hOUSE.lfinch, 1:,pp&rcntly in good hel'"lth (nd not very fright- ened. She flew quietly to one of the windows, Yiherc I cq)tured hur, loob.d her over, then took her out-doors pcg(.in. V~henrE:leLsed in th€>dtrkness she flew to E neerby. The explanation? Wedunno - but there are several finch nests in the rose bushes just outside our living room winoows. That evening we had neglected to com- pletely close the venetian blinds, so thut the living room lights were shining direct- ly into the nests. Did Mrs. Finch object to the lights? Your gueSS is as good as ours~ The meeting of the Council of the Western Bird-Banding Association w~s called to order b,y President Cruwford ~t 2:40 p.m., September 8, 1946, ct the Michener home, PasCldena, CaliforniE.. Councilors present: Mr. W.dter 1. Allen, Mrs. N. Edwerd Ayer, Mr. F'ranklin C. Cr&.Vwford,Mr. C. V. Duff, Miss Helen S. Prt-.tt, Miss Bl&nche Vignos, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Michener. The minutes of the previous meeting, June 9, 1946, were approved as m~.iled to L.ll the councilors. TRAPS On July 15, 19/+6, IVlr.Irl R.ogers wrote thE' se(:rt,tc ry sbying thtlt he is "fed up" on tra.p mc;king,.nd. ;;.sking th;:,t cfter tpe June number of the NE'ISno mention be mE.dein the ~ of trr..ps being c;vLih,ble fronl him. Until further notice from Mr. Rogers, this will be understooc to me<.:nthf,t hev"lishE:s to stop the c.dvertising U1d not that he will refuse to fill ~ny orders th~t comb to him. President Crcwford s.aked Mr. Duff to make Mother survey of' fLctories in the Los Angeles Lrea, thflt might m~ke trEtps. LIBRARY The secretary corrected his st~tement &t the l£st meeting to the effect th&t the material y,hich had been collected in the vi .B.B.A. libnry hed been sent to Berke1l,.Y in 1931 and was not returned when heLdqu~rters W&S returned in 1937. This m~teri~l was not sent to BerkeLey E:ndhES been taking up room in Nir. Robertson's gerE.ge ~11 this time. He recently brought it to the secret~ry and it is now being distributed to those who want parts of it. Only t smttll portion will be thrcwn f..W!;y. STATEBIRD-BANDINGP~lITS The secretary reported thf,.t progress hr:.s been m::~detowE:rd the re-establish- ment of cooper!:.tive c;ction of the Divisionoof l"ish 6.nd Gfme £Ild the W.B.B.A. on the issu&nce of these permits. He is 'now w9iting for further word from Mr. Don~ld D. Mc- Lean to whomthe hE~dling of ~nding permits for the Division of Fish &nd GLmeh9s been ~ssigned. There is still a prospect thLt Dr. Lowell Sumner can handle the W.B.B.A. end of the work. DATESOr' ISSU1 .fORTHENEWS It was explf:.ined thEot during the er-rly J'eEJrs of the life of the News from the ~ Banders the four numbers of eEch yetr were dated JEnu~:ry, April, June end October. There were some v&ri~tions ~nd during the last few years the dates have been shifted to two months later. President CrE'.wfordexple.ined thE.t it is very desir5ble, especially from the Business M~ntger's point of view, to have all four numbers for the yeer in the hE'.ndsof the members before the skte:ments of dues for the next yeer ere moiled, about December 1st. Mrs. SElrgent hlos been consulted. She will h£ve numbers ready for November, 1946, C:.ndJe.nw-.ry, 1947. (September number Wt·smailed on the day of the meeting). It WhS moved, seconded and cerried th&t the dftes of the fo~r numbers of the News be J~uary, ~pril, July f..ndOctober of eech ye[;.r and th£t the Council recom- mends tha.t the cctUEl mailing be held within these months in so ffJ..res possible. EDITORTO SUGCEEDMRS. SARGh~TNEXTYEl:.R. President Crawford. exphined th&.t Mrs. Sargent's a.greement lhst winter was to take the editorship for one yc&r, beginning with the September number. Actur.lly she began with the June number und the J61lUcry, 1947 number will be her fourth. Al- so, in writing her Lpproval of stepping up the numbers so 1947 could begin with Jan- uS,ry, she said we should be looking'for ~nother editor after thc,t. The president re- quested the secretary to write to Mrs. Surgent and ask whether the jEnu8ry number will be her last issue. At Emy rete, & new adi tor must be found and he c~skE:dthat ew;;ry- one make suggestions. He ~lso suggest0d th~t he und the secret~ry be assigned the task of securing c. new editor to take over at Mrs. Sargent's resigmition. It w~.s moved, seconded r;;.ndcurried th".t the president lmd secretf.'ry be so instructed. EXCHANGEOF' NEV/SwiITHLOS ANGELESCOUNTYMUS.E.1JM This question .hed been discussed c..t ~. Chapter meeting where it Vile,S decided that the Los Angeles County Museum Libr£Jry should be put on the mu,iling, list. Also, the secretary wes instructed to write to the Libr&rim f..nd ::.sk whether the:y would like a complete, ElI' nel;..rly complete, set of back numbors. Of course, e.ll this vms out of order because it is W.B.B.A. council business. However, it WPS carried out end from the reply from the Librf:ril.:m it vws not entirely clear whether they did not want the back numbers or whether they did not like to Gccept because they did not have adequate value to send D.S exchsnge. The letter wes h<.:.ndedto Mr. Duff with the l"equest the t he discuss the mC'.tter with them some time when he is e.t the Museum. ~ INDEX It vms movf;:o, secondt:::d. tnG. C~:irried thr,t the Couneil express its th&nks to Mr. C1I1dMrs. P&ul D. Hurd for undE:rtl':king to prcp&ro index. cards for eoch issue of thE; News, as it e.ppe~r6, 50 thfit En ir;ctex mB:)? bE; b.ssE:mbleu Hne. published [,t the end of such number of yCLrs f.,S If,1:.y be' StlE:ct8(..l, t.nd thE,t the Busirless lVlc,n&.gerbe requested to convey these thEnks to lVJr. tIle, tiirs. Hued Lnd ~,o f rr: nge with them to pey the ex- penses of the necesst:.n' ct~rds for the ~1crk. Htrold IVlichener, 8ecrbt&ry Correspondence between thE; chc:.irmE.n e.nd the vc:,rious gull banaers, prim<.-rily on the subj Get of gull records for the Pacific Gull Color-Banding Proj ec t, cen kins also much general inf'ormetion of int6rest: Dear Mrs. Sargent: 1 I note in the last Condor (Edited July-August 1946, pages 179-180) your sum- mary of additional work done on the Ps.cific Gull Proj ect, including some done by Dr. Hill and myself. When /;cvailoble, would you send severe.l reprints of this summary to me. In c.ddi tion, if aV<.:ilt;.ble could you send some copies of thE' pr~vious report. vie banded some more l'&.rcllone Gulls this ;:·ct::.r, but limitation of time on the island precluded E.:. more significant number. Hllrold will i'orvn,.ro to you the re- port of 100 C~liforni::, Gulls bc·nded "t Mono Lf2,ke. bhile there I saw only one previous- ly b/:;.nded bird - on Gdult flying with c blUE- b<.cncion the right leg on Jul;y· 1;, 1946. The fellow who runs the boat says that he occasionally sees a banded bird following the boat. Perhaps I will get an opportunity to visit some of the gull congregations in the Bay Region if I am her~ e.few more weeks. Harold has been released from the NE.V¥ after less than four months. He has returned to Southern ~~lifornia to practice a little medicine before heuding for Btja, ~E.liforniLLin the f£.ll Telford H. Work, Lt. (jg) M~ USNR U. S. Nbvctl Hospi tr,l Tre(.sure Is1f:nd, oW l'r~~ncisco Dear Mrs. Sargent: I've just been talking with Woody Willit..ms,whom I think you know. He is at Scripps. Woody h~s been telling us about his trip down the COBst of B&ja, Califor- nia with Karl Kenyon. I am going to Bajs,with ~ botanicul expedition from Stcnford which is leaving in two days. ~ie expect to be gone till Christm~s £.ndgo the whole length of the peninsul:;.by truck, mDking num arous side trips. Of course I will look for gulls when nCE.r the co~st. Sorry to be long in getting E;.llof this seecsonI s reports to you but Tel- ford Work had some da.tc,which I needed, and I we.s slow in getting it from him. Inci- dentally, he was not relet:lsedfrom the Nevy in August bS he hoped that he would b~ and is now on ~ trmker neo.r ChinE. sornt·where. Here I s & brief summ£.ry of the gull bf~nding for this yec,r: June ~8 we he.nded forty-eight, Uld on July 5, forty-four yvung Western gulls on the f~rallons. This totals ninety-two birds. Combim,tion ViE,S (Right) White, (L€ft) green over survey. We had only an hour or so ebch time on the island while the ship which supplies the light house was unloE\ding. We SEW no birds previously bBnded. On July 12 and 13 Telford ~ork went to Mono L~ke.He banded one-hundred young California gulls with the combino.tlon (Right) green over survey, (Left) blue ••• Dear Mrs. Sargent: I carried out observhtions on Gull Islfnd, Howe Sound, British Columbi~ on the morning of 7 July, to see if I could find any colour bf..ndedGlaucous-winged gulls on this Island nesting. I w~s there for four hours cnd had £nother observer with me, Miss M. Cross. We both used powerful field gh'.sses, in this time we fa.iled to note one colour bcnded gull on the Isl~nd, nor did we see one with the Biological Survey Band. As the Island contains only ubout three Lcres and we were on & ridge at th~ top I would say we covered the Island fully. There were young present in large numbers, along with eggs, and the parent birds could be seen e£.sily. I hf;ve in the past yec.rs banded about 1000 birds with Survey B~nds and I was ~mazed that no bird w~s observed bearing any band whatsoever. Hope the other nesting are&s are covered fully for you and th~t they have better results thf.nwe did. Am very tired as I have had E. very full dt;y, the logging str~e being over, so tugs are plentiful again ••• Kenneth C. Alexander E~st B£.y,Gc:mbier IslGnd British ~olumbia Dear Mrs. Sargent: I have delayed answering your letter of ~gth Mayuntil I could get hold of a map tha.t would show the position of the different places you b.sk about. Be- ing in Victoria, this week, Ic:alled tit the Provincial Government Office, with the result that I procured the tvw enclosed m6.ps. (Editor's I\ote - ~ excellent maps of British Colum bia) •.• Looking through my records &nd those sent by you two things struck me: First, that fa.r awa y the greater number of returns are from locations within a radius of a few miles of iVIittlenach end, secondly, how many more returns haVE;come in for birds cover~d by the colour banding scheme than in pr(;vious years ... The following are particulars of the oBnding on the West coast (~itor's Note - survey banding b~' Pearse of young Glhucous-winged Gulls on the ~iest coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbic) 41-674601 to 674610 (10 birds) Barkeley Sound 17 August '43 674611 to 674647 \37 birds) PachenL Bay 19 August '43 These two ph ..ces ere only <... fe'll' miles apt.rt. 41-674748 to 67 Lnd 771.669 <-nd89 (~~;birds) Pt..chen<.-BE-.y 11 August '45 You c:sk ebout the West8rn Gulls I s~w,at PEchem.: those seen in 1943 were typical but, lc-.st yer~r, 1 did not see cnj.' rec.lly t;ypicEl Occidentalis but some birds that were there I feel ~ure were hybrids. I re~d 0 paper on this ~t the meeting of the Pacific North Viest Bird Dear Mrs. Sargent: 1 em now Dblc to report on my visit to Mittlem.ch Island on 27 July, cnd it is nil. I looked over qUitE; E.:. lr.rge numbt;;rof' the birds there withou..t seeing &ny bird with lmy kind of bf:.nd. ~o i'&T ES &rE. Island is concerned I wrote t friend of' mine, who visit.ed the isl~nd this summer but h~"venot h',.d Lny rE-ply so f&r, I f~ncy he is away from home. I survey banded 1;':9 nestlings. I use the term "nestling" though I':syou will h~ve realized, gulls in this st~ge [;re, frequently, not in the nest but in hiding neEr- by but yet cannot be designated fledglings. I only hEo.dthe abOVE: number of b~nds with me and used them up in l:.. short time; there were morb youngsters about th(~n in (ny pre- vious year of my experience. • . The most interesting thing WhS seeing a gull with bhck primtries there, I had a good look at it through binocuhrs ond could see no difference in nny other re- spect from the IDEnyGlE..ucous-wings in normal plum£.gewith which it vws surrounded. I am not a collector but thE.t Vif.S one occ£:,sion th~~t I should hEve liked to hE..ve ha.d a Theed Pecrse Box 159 Camox, V&ncouverlslbnd, B. C. Dear l'vfts~-Sargent: nlanks so much for your recent letter and enclosures. Surely you have put a lot of time and effort into this project! I have checked all of the records you sent me with me own card file, and with the exceptions noted believe they are all correct ••• It is certainly too bad there ha.s been no chance for observation in the Ore- gon colonies of Western gulls these past three years. I still hope to get down to the coast in late June or ee,rly July, :.mdwill m~ke every effort to visl t the colonies at that time. I miss those ~~nual bird trips more than anything else we left when we came up here. We do like this country a lot, but hove ha.d no time for ttbirdingll up to nm">'. May be able to visit SODleof the gull colonies here ,next month, though the possibil- ity of a business trip East makes it seem rather unlikely just now ••• I received a request recently from I. M.Cowan of the University of British Columbia for detailed records of returns from the province. He sV,yshe has a number of records of adult Western Gulls, but none (no specimens) of juveniles. This seems odd as all of my returns from British Columbia without exception are juveniles, most of them in their first winter. Sent him records of'€:ight returns, including some received since 1939 ••• Reed Ferris L~80 E""st 21st South Street Salt L~k~ City 5, Utah KARL W. KENYON Karl Vi. Kenyon of Lc-.JoJ.ln, who banded vVestern gulls with the Chairman in 1940 on North Coronado Isl&nd, Mexico (off Serl Diego, Culifornie) was able to make two trips back to the islund in 1946. On March 27, '46 he visited the island W'ldfound mE.i.nyadults but no banded birds. Ka,rl wa~ then on his ,yay to Baja., Ct,lii'ornie.for & two months cruise in his auxiliury sloop "The Seven Sees It. With him on the trip we s Milo "Woody" Willi~,ms, also of U~ Jolla. Both Karl c:.ndWoody grc,dur.tedfrOIDPomona in 1940. Kurl received his M. S. degree from Con1ell in ornithology in September, 1941. Soon after he entered the Navy bnd became a nsval air corps pilot in the P&cific, seeing cctive duty in T£r8w[~, Eniwetok, and the Philippines. In 1945 he received the Navy Cross for heroism in ELction. He received his discharge etS a lieutenant in Feb'ruE.ry,1(j46. On the BELja, C&lifornia trip, Karl collected bird specimens and Willibms, snail specimens. They trr.velled down the COf,st about 400 miles, stopping at Punta, Baja and Cedros Ishmd among other points, s,nd spending seventeen dhys in St:.amons Lagoon. No color br.,ndedgulls wero seEm. In July, c:.fterc,t[,lkwith the chfdr1flRn,KRrl t.greed to take his sloop out to North Coronado IsILnd for :;;"summer check-Up on the gulls. The chtdrmc:.nptdd the customs and illlIIligrationfees (going to North voronpdb Isl&.nd is es complicated DS going to Argentin&). Karl left Sm Diego July 22 and returned JUly ::;6, spE:nding two whole days, July 23 tilld 24, on the North island~ .He elso lE-nded on the two sIDE'll middle islands in the Coronado group, !md found considerfble nuinbers of gulls. He looked a.tthousands of adults, und saw not a single bt'.Ild. Karl reports that all of the adults were in full ~dult plumage, except a few with u few black m~rks in their tail fe~thers. There w~s a good brown Pelican population on the North island, with the young starting to fly. Karl W&s particularly interested in the several dozen P~trels he found on the North island in crevices and cracks. He collected one adult Petrel and took two downy young Petrels home with him a.live. THE FISH AND vULDLIFE SERVICE is <:tsking. Every bander ple€.se look t:this bands and records. Apparently these bands were issued to someone, from the Emergency Supply, prior to the inventory of September, 1942, and were not Gntered in the records A bird wearing one of these blindshlis been tr~ipped. If you he.ve any infornu-.tionin regard to these bands ple~.se notilJr H~rold Michener, Vustodian of the Emergency Supply of Bands, 418 North Hudson Avenue, Pasaden~ 4, Califonlia. During the pP..st 15-20 ye~rs 1 ht,ve bcmded neb.rly one-thQuH:.nd Oregon Juncos (Junco oreganus orega.nus). A 11 b~,nd.inghas been done during the winter or early spring months. For the past three years I heAve k,,:~.'t some notes on two features of pluma.ge in the males, the density of the black on the heDd End the b.mount of white in rectrixes 4, 5, and 6 (counted from inside). Viewed from Et distance the heed of the male Ore:gon Junco appeE •.rs a solid deep black, but when in hand, my experience has beeG that it wes very seldom thst the black could be so described, inmost cases being flecked with, more or less, reddish brown. I had hoped, by rect.pture, to bE;~b1e to reech some conclusion a.sto when the denser colour is acquired and as to the increase of white in the rectrixe8 from year to year. I made notes as to these markings for 106 birds but &8 this figure includes the winter of '44 - '45, on which no returns could become f~vf.ilableuntil this yef:..r when, owing to change of residence I was unable to continue the investigation, the material, to check on, would be only about thirty birds. I had one return 1\27633 b~'.nd€d14 November '43 ~md entered 8S hes.d a little flecking and numbers 5 and 6 rectrix both showing White; the bird was recaptured a.tthe same station 26 December 144 and then showed besides white on 5 end 6 E: white stres.k on the outside vane of number 4 rectrix and the head was, c..lmost,block. Not much to draw any conclusion from, but ht least thiS bird showed thut the black does become denser and the white increases with age. Taking the 106 birds, 35 were listed s,ahavin~ black hes-ds, 45 with decided ticking and 26 black with slight ticking. Actually 1 I think, the black numbers may be overstated a.sin the early s.tages, I did not differenth,te so closely. I certainly came to the conclusion that I;:. redly bl£.ck he&l.dedbird Vi8.S r",lmost~;r",rity. On the other hand, sometimes the ticking 'i'n,s very slight. The records show'that most of the birds in Janu8.ry or.meunder the head- ing of "ticked" or "slightly tickedh with the heavier ticking predominating. In March ticked birds exceeded bl~ck by about fifty per cent. A few birds trapped the end of April '45 including a repee.tfrom the previous January, were entered as six black and five ticked. These birds, except the one, may have been migrants. I have referred to some of the standard works as to the description of the head colouring: Tb.verner, "Birds of Western Canudall gives the head of the adult male Oregon Junco as black: Ridgway "MrmuG:lof North American Birds" and Gabrielson and Jewett fiBirdsof Oregon", black or dark sllitye.ndDawson wd Bowles "Birds of Vv&shington", sooty black. I hope the foregoing may be the means of arousing the interests of other banders in ch&nges of plumage from ye<:tTto year, ~tninve:stigll.tionthut banders have the only means of making. Theed Pearse ~omox, Vancouver Isl&nd, British ~olumbia. The 209th meeting of the Los Angeles Chapter, ~j.B.B.A., August 11, 1946, at the Michener home, Pase-dena, California, was c&lled to order at ~:30 p.m. by President Allen. Present: Miss Elizabeth Allen, Mr. Walter 1. Allen, Mrs. Evelyn C. Baltzar, Mrs. M~rie V. Beals, Mr. H. B. Beebe, Mr. Frederick Dean, Miss Helen S. Pratt, Mr. and Mrs. John MeB. Robertson and son james, Miss Blanche Vignos, Dr. L.nd Mrs. Sherwin F. Wood &nd daughters Cnrol Emo Lynne, !Vir.and Mrs. Harold Michflner. The minutes of the June End July meetings were approved &S circuleted by mail. In regard to the Sheppard Bill (H. R. 4703) providing for the elimination of certain mountainous portions &t the eastern end of the JOShUD. TreE)Nutional Monu- ment and maintaining the remainder free from mining end hunting, bS reported in the minutes of the June meeting, the secretfcry reported the receipt of f· letter from Representative C&rl Hinshl:tVl.Mr. Hinshaw said that when Congress re-convenes he will be happy to cooperate with Mr. Sheppard and see that this bill is favorably reported by the committee and brought to the House for action. He said Mr. Sheppard told him there has been some opposition to this bill. Mrs. l"lorence Henderson, 8acrumento, wrote on June 27, "Birds all gone for the summer. Nothing more till September or October. Not even any young Robins this spring. Our birds nll left as soon E..S they clea.nedup the cherrie:s.I' On August 5 she wrote, IiIjust had the first out-of-sts.te report on one of my birds, and a Goldfinch L.t that. I be,nded srid bird on i,1&rch15,1946, c.ndit vms fQund in Corvallis, Oregon, on May 7,1946. I Blvwys thought of Willow Goldfinches as being local migrants up end down our valley." Sacramento to Corvcllis is about 420 miles. Dr. Harold M. Hill wrote eurly in July, lf~olorbanded gulls on FoTFllon Islands June 28 and July 5." Mrs. Harold H. Bailey, Rockbridge Alum Springs, Virginia, wrote on July 11, "Found my first Indigo Bunting's nest today, but it is about 15 feet up, instead of about 2 - 3 feet. Probably second brood. Hope to band "fledglings" (?)." Mrs. Amelia R. Laskey, Nashville, Tennessee, wrote on July 19, "What a wonderful bird haven Mr. Chamber's farm is111 Two postal cards came from the Duffs. The first from Ottawa, Canada, dated July 31, said, IIHada nice visit yesterday with Ha.rrison L Lewis. We are enjoying the beautiful scenery here. Are leaving this morning for Montre~l and Quebec." The second from Bar Harbor, Maine, dated August 3, said, IIThis is such a pretty place and we enjoyed the Acadia National Park. It is good to be back in the U. S. A." Mrs. Beals had been asked four questions which required some study so she shared the answers with the group present. In addition to her ovm reading she had received answers from Dr. Robert Cushman Murphy and Dr. James P. Chapin, both of the American Museum of Natural History, ~nd Dr. Alexander Wetmore, secret&ry of the Smith- sonian Institution. The questions, with sbstracts of their answers follow. 1. Do all birds have crops? The esoph~gus of many birds be- comes modified into a speci!.:.lpouch,ce.lled the crop or craw, where food is detained to be me.cen ted in a special secre- tion before pussing to th8 true stomach. Such definite crops occur in birds of prey which ,~·etsuch mEJsses of food thfLt it ct.nnot all be rec~;ivcd in the stomO.chtot once. In Columbine snd Gellineceous birds thht feBd upon seeds and other fruits so hl:.rdthat they require lli~cerationb.S 1';. pre- liminary to true digestion, the crop is most highly developed. Most finches have crops. Crops are lacking in most or all sea birds abd in many lsnd birds. 2. Why do the Tubinares htive tube-noses? No one knows why but since the nostrils cen be closed that must be a convenient way to keep water out of the lungs while feeding with the head more or less submerged in the water. 3. \Vhy should Toucans have developed such a huge bill? The size of the bill apparently is not too closely comlected with any special usage. A slender bill of similar length would serve the purpose of reaching fruit on slender termin~l branches as well as a massive bill. However, the Toucan's bill is very light in weight E.5 it has u rather honey-comb-like structure. One writer SE.id, "•••1 believe that structure precedes function, and I believe it is more logical to say that a finch creeks hard seeds becf;.useit has a stiff conical bill rf::.therthanto say it has a stiff conical bill becsuse it crf.;,ckshardseeds. The toucan has happened to develop a huge bill, end it con- tinues perfectly w~ll to g~t f.;,longwithit. However, if the process went too far in any branch of the toucan f~lily, the big bill would ct:rtlo.inlyfinishoff those particular toucans!" 4. What are the mecnings of the terms convergent evolution and di- vergent evolution? Convergent evolution means the production of similar Qrganisms from different stocks. Divergent evolution means the production of very different looking organisms from stoc~s which ~re neverthel~ss closely related. The Australirun marsupiz.l mUllllIDlsLlloriginuted from a common type vf Phalonger- like mammal, but the descendunts diverged in many different directions, producing squirrel-like m6mma.ls, jumping creatures like k&ngaroos, predacious enimhls like the SO-Culled Australinn wolf, a mole-like type tnd v~rious others. This represents wide divergence from c:...;ommonancestry. On the other h~.nd, the marsupial "wolf" (Thy- lacinus) is an example of convergent evolution with plc:..centc:..lwolves &nd their rel- atives. It resembles them in gener&l form and feeding habits, although it is geneti- cally farther removed from a. true wolf than a cow, c. bear or even a whale. Mr. Frf'..nklin G. \;re.wford reported by postLl card from his ct-bin in the San Bernardino Mountains on August 5, "Yesterdny caught twenty-two birds, mostly Juncos. This a.m. had six Mountain QuG..ilin t'.!l eight cell trap; le.ter five Juncos in same trap. II Miss Allen had been near Mt. Lassen for about e month. M~nyRobins were nesting there. Miss Vignos recently listed twenty-three kinds of birds in Aliso Cr..nyon, back of Laguna.Be6.ch, among them \rJ6stern Tam,ger, Black-headed Grosbec.ks and Ph&in- opeplas. A friend had asked her whet could we done for birds that get their feathers soaked with oil. Various solvents were mentioned from Garbon Tetrachloride to -, no, cold cresm was not mentioned though it hes been uS8d to take pine pitch off F. dog's feet because gasoline made it whimper. Mrs. Woodsaid th&t Dr. Woodand 0r.rol h&d done consider8ble bc:nding lE.st spring; that recently two Ash-throated F'lycatchers a.dded Co new species to their home record; that a Shrike moved in that morning (August 11) ~nd all the other birds moved out. Dr. Woodreported Linnets a.nd three Hooded Orioles coming to be.the in e trench e.long a row of young carrots soon ni'ter he tUrT18din the water. The Orioles nested in a palm not f~r bW&y,h~ tilinks. In la.te June they cf;mpedfor f._ few dChyS ne~,r Three Rivers, on th", K&vveah River. He h8.d never before known cbttl.·: to be 6.fraid of c large bird.. One morni.ng while still lying in hi::; sleeping b'i.g, he saw t. Gre/;'.tBlue Heron come fl~1ing up the river and light on a pc-toh of SE-ndupon which <.. considc,rable number of cows W6re standing and lying. The cows £.11rl';.n &.W&yin greet h".ste leLving the heron to walk around slowly and survey the lc.ndscc::.pe. WhenDr. Woodmoved D. little the heron de- parted. At Charlton F·le..ts, recently, they hF.1dseen several White-headed Woodpeckers come to drink at a little founte.in. Miss Prett said that she he.d noticed th&t birds liked to bathe in water on the ground so had made pernwTJ.sntlittle pools a.t ground level for them. Even with these pools at hane. they go to 8. spny of water when it is turned on. She spoke pe.rticularly of the 0hinese Spotto'i Dov(js &nd thE: way they lift their winge to let the spray strike underneath. Mr. Frederick Det.Il, whi.le wdting for C'.ischa.rgefrom the NaVY, looked up the bird-banders of the region. His home is in Putnay, Vermont. He exp8cts to enter the University of ME;in<;; this f'tll to specialize on wild.life mvnagemEmt. He told of having banded hawks :in Vermont. Back of Sun::;et BeEcchhe hl..lCtseen .An1erican Egrets, several shore birds and Turkey Buzzards. Mrs. Baltz[;.r reportc:d thE"t they hc;.clspent £ fE;wQI:WS lrcst week in MajeskE; Ce.nyon. The Ja.ys were bossing the food tables there. The Robertson femily had recently returned from c' six weekI S v.:.cc:.tion. Mr. Robertson I s account of the various Corvi6D.e seen gives their i tin€t'y. In the CUJ'E- maca Mountains in Sr;n Diego County, in June, he was surprised to see Crows r.bove 5000 feet, since he h<:;.dconsidered them birds of the low1;·.nds. There were Southern CLIUoep; J&ys and Blue-fronted Stelhr Jr-.ys I::..lsothere. Then going northl'iarLi.ther6 were yellow billed Magpies between Banta Barba.ra and San Luis Obispo and again in Santa Clara County. In the Big ~ur area, on the ~oa.st road between ban Luis Obispo and Monterey there were the Coast Stellar Jays. Then ot Mount Lassen the Blue-fronted Stellar Jay appeared agcdn EJndht. DhilllondLake, Oregon, both the Blue-fronted Stelh.r Jay and the CEmadaJay (Oregon Jay). Here theC~mf:dG J~s kept to the Lodgepole Pine forests and the Stellar Jays to the Douglas Fir forests although the two types of forest joined. At Crater Lake thE';Clark Nutcra.ckers were abundant at one place on the rim where they appa.rently were accustomed to being fed. Then on the way home he saw Black-billed Mhgpies on the e~st side of the Sierra &ndRl1vens fa"thE:r south. At the Palomar mountcin camp grounds he saw e spotted Owl hnd in the Mount Lr',ssen P&rk he heard what he felt sure were Flammulr~t0dScreech Owls, though he did not see one. In King's Creek Menao;ls, Mount L&.ssem,he SUVI a nest Lnd eggs of the Mountain White-crowned Sparrow. Mrs. Robertson spoke of the bright, clear colors of the birds in the moun- James Rob~rtson, rGportiEg 1'0. their home, told of ~n oppcSt~ being sc~red out of a hedge fIla up into L tree €:nd some vines when the l&vmWhS watered. He had not seen many birds there except ~ few Red-tailed. Hewks E-.ndTurkey Buzzr:rds and Eng- lish Sparrows ~.lways. Mr. Allen se.id young BlI: ck-h0Lided Grosbeaks Wto'restill "mewingII f: round his station, in fact, he he-d not hGL,rdthe young ec.rlier in the season tlthough the species seemed unusuclly <.,bundtnt. Hc..roldMichene:r, Secretr,ry The 210th meeting of the Los Angeles Chapter, Vi.B.B.A., September 8, 1946, at the Michener home, Pas~denb, California, was c~lled to order by President Allen immediately following the W.B.B.A Council meeting. Present: Miss Elizabeth Allen, Mr. We.lter I. Allen, Mrs. N. Edward Ayer, Mr. and Mrs. Joel Baltzar snd children Sarcll and Eric, Mrs. Marie V. Beals, Mr. F'rt-nklin G. Cnwford, Mr. and Mrs. C. V. Duff, James Duff, B(,rban Duff,. D:vid Duff, Mrs. Elmer E. Htill, Miss Helen S. Prttt, Miss Blanche Vignos and Mr. l.t.ndMrs. H<:.roldMichen6r. The minutes of the August meeting were approved t s circulf.ted by mC.i1. The secretary recalled thrt beginning with November, 1942, the minutes of the Chapter meetings hl.:.vebeen in the form of rr.ther full reports E..ndha\'e been cir- culated by mail to &11 Chapter members ft t. cost of t:.pprclxillll;;..tely$1.15 per meeting for postage. The five envelopes rE,r meeting h6v(; been stolen from the noVine[.;.rly exhausted supply of the W.B.B.A. ~ime ~nd other meteri~l and deprecietion (or should the word be obsolescence"?) of the secretary tmd first essistlmt secretrcry hElve been gratis. Members' inability to attend the m6etings bec&use of gbsoline r(;st~ictions wa.s the reason for beginning the circuletio11 vi' the minutes. The secretf,.ry suggested thr.t it now be tE:mtEtively' pl~,nned to discontinue the circuh:.tion of the minutes b.fter the December, 1946 meeting; tha.t l:rrcngements be made with the editor of' the News fer i:: s(;ction in eG'.chnumber, under em E'ppropriate he&.ding, for gossip from Ohapter meetings; that any items of particular importtmce or length which may be developed in the Ohapter meetings and which may seem suitable for the !im. be offered for appearance in the News outside of gossip section, at the discretion of the Editor; that condensed minutes of each meeting be written and read at the following meeting. The greatest loss to the Chapter, due to this change, will be the group of monthly notes th&t come in on the escort cards, particularly from the suburban members (those members who dwell in the sub-.suburbs of Los Angeles such &.s Illinois, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia antIway stations). But we shall hope that they, upon receiving the News, will turn to the Los Angeles Chapter section and, after reading it, wri te ~t least a postal cEcrd to the secretary. It was moved, seconded and oarried that this proposal be tentatively ap- proved and that it shall be ce.lled up for final considere.tion at the December meeting. Mr. Hatch Grnham, July :'::9, sl:.id,"At Tokopoh {<'ellsabove Lodgepole Camp in Sequoia National Park on July 13 I sr.wOuzels, one ma.king mrolY trips up and down the stream to feed the other, which latter appeared full grown, and w~s able to fly. Only the two in sigh.t • S&.w the 'feeder I welk under we.ter •II Mrs. Amelia. R. Leskey, Nc.shville, Tennessee, August 15, said, IIWha.ta dis- appointment I have hf.l.din rc,ising two f'emlde Cowbirds. I w~ted to les.rn more about son3. Anyway there will be two less to lay eggs next spring.n Mrs. l'dargaretM. Nice, Ghicago, August 19, s;;..io,I1HOVIcurious your little House Finches are. About how old ere they?11 This refers to the Micheners' report of young house finches biting off le~,:,vf:s,pulling r..tstring, etc. No definite records of age have been kept but it is certLin th&t neerl;}'"all the birds seen doing this were in their early weeks efter becoming independent of th~ir parents. Mr. Irl Rogers, Modesto, Cb.lifornia, August 7, wrote: "I got the first Ireturns I on my spring banding this week from Washington. Thirteen recoveries from this county, one from Sacramento and one each from Tacom6. and Allyn, Vw.shington for the Waxwings and a Robin from Hf~lsey, Oregan. The Allyn bird was banded in 1945 !tnd found injured in June, 1946, and the rest were bS.nded in 1946." Mr. Cr8wford reported that while on his vacation at his c&.bin in the San Bernardino Mountains (approximately the first two weeks of'August) he banded a total of 118 birds of 9 species, as compared with )40 of 13 species in 1945 end 54 of 9 species in 1944. Juncos took first place with 65 individuals, followed by 24 Chich- adees. Mountain Quail and Stellar Jays tied for third plece with 7 e&ch. Two Stellar Jays there appeared to be trembling all the time. Mr. Duff told about the two and one-half month trip b,y automobile they had all taken through the Rocky Mountain region of United States and Gant-da, eastern Can- ada, eastern United Ste.tes and home agEdn. Mrs. Duff st-id she is enthusiastic a.bout. vacations and is ready to start on enothcr. (Been home ;'bout 10 da.ys) They had visited the O. L. Austin station on Ca.pe Cod, v/here the traps c~re bEited every day but the birds trapped only every othtlrday; the Point Pelee Nationsl Park on the Canadian side of Lake Erie where there were n wonderful lot of birds; the'Courteney Nation!:l Park where they h(md-c£ught rold bended a young Red-ahEi'ted Flicker, the one bird they banded on the trip; the Jasper Natiom:1 Pf:rk end mcny other points of inter-e· and beauty. Friends, relE·tives &nd ornithologists nec.rly (.:,11were pE;ssed by becftuse of lack of time. H£rold Michener, Secretary NEWS FROM THE BIRD BANDERS Western Bird-Banding Assln. Mailed from 418 North Hudson Avenue, Pasadena (4), California For D~GI1~CY SUPPLY OF BANDS and information in regard to banded birds found, address Mr. Harold Michener, 418 No. Hudson Avenue, Pasadena 4, California For MEMBERSHIP AND DUES, address Mrs. N. Edwa rd Ayer, Business Manager, 1300 Jiillcrest Drive, Pomona, California W.B.B.A. and Cooper Membership W.B.B.A. Ornitholo&ical Club Associate • . $1.00 3.50 Active •• 1.00 3.50 Sustaining • • • • • • • 5.00 7.50 Life (Total, not yearly). 50.00 125.00 Members. outside the United Sta tes, add twenty-fiv~ cents to the first three items of the last column for additional postage on The Condor Members are urged to subscribe to the quarterly journal Bird-Bending pub- lished .qy the Northeastern, Eastern and Inland Bird-Banding Associations. This annual subscription, normally $i.50, can be had qy members for $S.OO in addition to any of the above stated dues. Please order directly from Charles B. Floyd, Treasurer, 210 South Street, Boston, MasShchusetts.