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 94 THE CONDOR VOL. X San (}eronimo Notes.--White having a sort of horne outin,r, as it were, among the firs on the back ranges of our ranch in the middie of September, 1906, with my brother, we noticed a number of Townsend Warblers (2endroica townsendi), and found that qnite a flock would come to feed around-our camp. Several specimens were taken. These warbiers often have been noted, and specimens taken, in winter and spring at San Geronimo, but all these heretofore have appeared to be single stragglers or occasional visitants. On this occasion, however, it would seem to ap- pear as if the line of fall migration had spread out toward the coast in our locality. On October 17, the first Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus :anthocephalus) I have ever seen or heard of in Marin County were noted flying down the San Geronimo Valley. They came close enough for me to see that they were either young males, or adult males already in winter plumage. There is no reason why these birds should not cross thru our district, but the fact remains that they do not do so, save on rare occasions. On October 28, 1906, the secoud Saw-whet Owl (Cryptorlau: acadica) was seen. I endeav- ored to add him to our collection by means of a stone, in the absence of other weapons, but my accuracy in this line seems to have lost something in the last thirty or forty years and he escaped, by a miracle (?).. A Rock Wren (Xalpinctes obsoletus) spent the winter of 1906-7 with us, living among the rocks in a fill on the new railroad cut-off near our house. This little fellow became quite tame and would let me approach to within a few feet of him before taking flight. I was in hopes that he would find a mate and breed there, and so make a new breeding record for this valley; but in early spring he took his departure and did not return last fall. This species has' only been noted as a straggler before this. Another specimen of White-throated Sparrow (ZonotricMa albicollis), a female, was taken here on Dec. 11, 1907, and another of this species seen. California records of this bird are becoming quite numerous. It must either have a poor bump of direction, or be somewhat absent-minded when migrating.--JoSEr MAILLIARD, San Froncisco, California. Catalina Quail.--Thru the courtesy 6f Mr. Howard Wright, of Pasadena, I have had the privilege of closely examining 16 more specimens of the Catalina Island Quail. Of these, ten are males and six females. They were taken at Middle Ranch, Santa Catalina Island, February 1 to 4, 1908. The series bears out precisely the characters assigned to Lophortya: catalinensis in the original description of that form, which was based on six skins from Avalon. (See tuk XXIII, July 1906, pages 262-265.) When compared with a series of the mainland vallicola the island birds are distinguished by larger size, especially of the feet, broadness of terminal barring on the posterior lower surface, and broadness of shaft-streaks on lower tail-coverts and flanks. An ad- ditional character which shows up in the larger series is the averaging more intense and exten- sive chestnut patch on the hind chest, in the male, of course. This does not seem to be due to the different "make" of the skins. Au examination of individual variation in the two series shows that any one character alone is not diagnostic of every single individual. For instance, a small-footed island bird can be duplicated in that respect by an extra large-footed mainland bird. But at the same time the barring and streaking of the foruer renders it easily recognizable. Then in the matter of barring on the lower surface, a mainland female appears as heavily marked as the average islaud female. But at the same time the former has a decidedly shorter wing and weaker foot. It is therefore evident that there is a mergence of separate characters thru individual vari- ation; and according to the criterion now apparently most popular, the island form would be given a trinomial appellation. The binomial, however, appears to me most useful, as it signi- fies complete isolation because of the intervention of a barrier.--J. GRINNELL, PasadeNa, California. The Mountain Bluebird in Northern Arizona.--The suggestion of Austin Paul Smith on page 50 of January CONDOR that the presence of Sialia arctica at Flagstaff, Arizona, in late February and early March might indicate that they are residents, hardly warrants that inference. The species reaches northern Colorado at about that time regularly in spring migration, spread- ing rapidly along the foothills at about the altitude of Flagstaff and reaching timberline (11,000 feet) by the last of March. They have been known to reach an altitude of 9,000 feet as early as February 23. Hence the Arizona record is not evidence one way or the other as to residence. However, for other reasons, some ornithologists suspect that in this latitude some few of the birds may remain in the mountains thru the winter, as in case of the robins.--JuNIuS HENDERSON, Boulder, Colorado.