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 80 THE CONDOR ] Vol. III AN INFORMATION COLUMN. The editors take pleasure in presenting and endorsing the following excel- lent suggestions:-- SAN FRANCmO, April o, I9O. To irembers of the Cooper Club.'-- "In a recent number of T}: CONDOR (Vol. 3, No. 2) the editor's parenthetical remarks un- der Mr. Lyreart Belding's inquiry as to the song powers of our Golden-crowned Sparrow, are most pertinent to our desire to see an 'Information Column' embodied in this publication. "Only through some such medium can information necessary for even the partial complet- tion of 'California Life Histories' be secured. We therefore hope this suggestion will receive the earnest consideration we now ask for it. "The benefits to be derived by some such co-operation will become apparent when due thought is given to the enhanced value of notes taken at various points simultaneously as com- pared with those of some one individual taken sporadically in various localities, or in different years in the same locality. Under the former system the arrivals and departures, moults, nest- ing habits etc., would be observed uuder corresponding conditio':s instead of, as might be in the latter cases, under such varied conditions as could readily arise from climatic or food influences. Thus, May notes taken in, say, Los Angeles County during May of a dry year and those taken in Marin County during the corresponding month of a wet year would be valueless in their com- parative deductions, as compared with such 13aken in those counties simultaneously. "As many of us desire iuformation with which to fill out gaps in our own observations, would it not be a good scheme to establish a column of information in T: CONDOR, for the purpose of mutually supplying information in answer to each other's queries? If more than one answer be received to any one question this department could be edited and condensed by the editor of the magazine in such a way as to bring forth facts and authorities and yet not oc- cupy much space. "There are many questions to which we can find no answers in ornithological libraries to which we may have access. Many of these answers should be found among notes collected by different members of the Club. Other questions to which no notes will apply may prove a stimulus to further and more detailed observation on the part of those interested, aud the re- suits in either case would be of benefit to all.--J. & J. W. MAILLIARD." Since the Information Column is obviously capable of bringing into publica- tion much valuable data, it will become a permanent feature of this magazine pro- viding Club members take an active interest as should be the case. Queries will be numbered consecutively and subsequent replies will bear the numbers of the queries to which they may refer. QUERIES. x. What is the California winter range of the Cedar Waxwing? 2. What is the California summer range of the Cedar Waxwing, with notes as to breeding records? 3. Time of post-juvenal moult in the House Finch? 4. Time of disappearance of similarity to adult males in plumage of Dryo- bates and Melanerpes? 5. Any peculiarities noted during the pasf winter in the range of Clarke's Nutcracker?--Jons W. MAILLIARD. 6. Does the Rufous Humingbird (Selasphorus rufus) breed in California? Hundreds of nests and eggs have been collected in this state and sent out to museums and collectors as of this species; and numerous articles have been written describing the nesting of the Rufous Hummingbird from different parts of the state, even south to San Diego. Nevertheless I feel almost confident that it is principally if not altogether the Alien Humingbird (S. alleni) to which these ac- counts refer. All the nests of which I have personally known have been of the latter species. The fact that the former species occurs in migration in the same localities and at the same seasons, should make the collector all the more careful in his identifications. Will someone present an aulhentic instance of the nesting of the Rufous Hmnmingbird in California?--Josv GmNNmL