Page:Condor6(5).djvu/28

 I38 THE CONDOR VoL. VI FIkOM FIELD AND STUDY The Capture of Totanus glareol a in Alaska.--During a collecting trip to the island of Sanak in I894, while I was collecting sets of the Aleutian song sparrow along the beach, May 27, I flushed from behind some large boulders a flock of Aleutian sandpipers. 1Vhen they flew I detected a peculiar bird note from their direction, and as it was new to me I looked to see if l could detect the owner. l soon discovered a long-legged snipe in the flock, which appeared to have been the author of the note. The flock soon settled on the beach not far off, and I was soon after the snipe, which alighted some distance beyond the others. It proved to be very shy, but I at last killed it, after firing several times at long range and following along the beach for half a mile. The specimen, which proved to be a female, was sent to the Smithsonian Institution, and there identified by Mr. Ridgway as Togamrs glareola. Three days after taking the specimen another bird was seen, which I feel reasonably certain belonged to this species, but like the other it was so wild that I could not get a shot, at a reasonable range. It finally flew. out to sea and disappeared. This species is not recorded in the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list, I believe, through a misunderstanding on my part. The specimen is still in my collection LITTLEJOHN, Redwood City, California. .__A Viait to .rorrey lailles.--Sorrento, the location of the far-famed Torrey pines, is a place filled with interest to more than one class of pleasure seekers. Besides the scrubby growth of pines found at no other place on the globe but on the few square miles of coast laud at this point and on two of the Santa Barbara Islands, we find here some of the most picturesque and rugged cliffs which it has been my good fortune to see in this part of the state. The formation is a light yellowish sandstone, which the action of the elements for centuries has sculptured into caves, holes and crevices of the most wierd and fantastic shapes, affording protection to many wild animals and birds. These holes and caves are a favorite nesting place for the Amer- ican barn owl (Slrixpralincola), and the great horned owl (tIubo virginianus). The accompanying illustration is from a photograph taken by the writer on Saturday, lIareh 2ist. Claude Conklin and myself started out at daylight and covered the intervening eighteen miles between San Diego and Sorrento with our horse and buggy in the early part of the forenoon, lunching among the Torrey pines at the point from which the picture was taken. After lnnch we started out prospecting for views, nests, eggs, birds or almost anything interest- ing. While visiting the owlcry we discovered seven nests and took a few sets of baru owl eggs, and secured a picture of a family of three young great horned owls in a cave about twenty feet from the base of a cliff and probably sixty feet from the top. We found access to the cave rather difficult, especially with the camera, as we were obliged to traverse a narrow ledge f or thirty or forty feet, much of the way being very uncertain owing to the loose sand lodged against the cliff. After arriving at the nest we still experienced trouble, for the space was too narrow to allow of passing the camera, after it was set up, and the young owls refiscd to look