Page:Condor15(6).djvu/38

 226 THE CONDOR Vol. XV CONDITIONS AT.BUENA VISTA LAKE During the early part of September, Deputy Tipton Mathews of Vasco, California, visited Buena Vista Lake, in southwestern Kern County. At that time, ducks were dying very rapidly. Deputy Mathews, in walking from the shallower portions of the lake along a slough on the northeastern side, counted over 5oo dead ducks in less than one mile. In some places the dead almost touched one another. On October 9 the writer visited this spot. Few birds were then dying there, but the great mass of carcasses was simply appalling. The ac- Pig. 77. SICK DUCKS REMOD FROM BUENA VISTA LAKE AND PLACED ON FRH WATER SOON RECUPERATED. THeE BIRDS RE ENCLOSED B PERPENDICULAR BKS AND WIRE NCING, THE FLIGHT FEATHERS OF ONE WING BEING CLIPPED  PRENT THE BIRDS FROM FLYING AWAY AS SOON AS WELL; PHOTOGRAPH TArN OCTOBER 9, 1913. companyng photograph (fig. 7 6) does not nrly do justice to the situation. Ducks constih:ted *he main portion of the remains; still. many cormorants, peN- cans, etc., were represented. A number of sick birds were obtained and exam- ined. Postmodem showed conditions similar to those of the Tulare Lake ducks. Samples of the water of Buena Vista are being analyzed. It is hoped that by further experimentation the specific factor of the malady may be brought to light, and that it may prove expedient to effect means by which this great loss of birds may  greatly reduced, or even prevented. FROM FIELD AND STUDY Two Stragglers on the Oregon Coast.--Plectrophenax nivalis ni;ajis. Snow Bunting. On December 31, 1912, Mr. O. J. Murie collected one of these birds on the ocean beach at Netarts, Oregon. It was alone and no others were seen during ten days hunting in this vicinity. Salpinctes obsolets obsoletus. Rock Wren. On December 27, 1912, Mr. Murie collect- ed a Rock Wren where it was running about over the drift-wood on the beach at Netarts. Th_s is the first record, to my knowledge, of this wren occurring on the coast o Oregon, and the record in midwinter makes it doubly interesting. Mr. Murie has kindly allowed me to publish these notes.--STANEV G. JEw,'r% Port- land, Oregon.