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 Jan., I9O6 I FROM FIELD AND STUDY Siphia erithacus Sharpe, Preoccupied.--The name 3?hia erzlhactts Sharpe, Ibis, i888, p. I99 (--6;l,ornis e ilhaca of Sharpe's Hand-list), applied to the little flycatcher of Palawan Island is preoccupied by Siphis erithacus Blyth, P. Z. S., x86, p. eo. 4pplied to an Indi.an species. If uo other name is available the Palawan bird may be known as (rornis parag'uae..-- RCI-IRD C. McGREC. OR, /ani/a, P. /. Buteo albieaudatus sennetti seen in San Francisco, Cal.--V,'llil taking a walk iu Golden Gate Park, San Frauci-co, Cal., on Nov. 7, 9o5, a rather good-sized hawk, which hacl an unfamiliar look, attracted my attentiou as it circled around some little distance away. For- tunately it came close enough to be seen more distinctly, and to my great delight its size and general coloration appeared to answer in every particular to the description of the Seunett White- tailed Hawk, and then as the sun shone on its tail as the bird wheeled and circled in th/e bright light there could l:e uo ntistaking the black band across the white ground for auytllig else on earth. Dr. C. Hart Merriam saw one, last year I think he said, uear Bakersfield, Cal., l.ut this is the most uortbern record I know of for the coast.--JosEP[l i'IAII, LIARD, The Wood Duck in Southern Caliornia.--I have but seldom heard of the'lcnrrence of the wood duck south of ttle Sau Joaquin, and eveu the few reports received have proven so intangible that definite records have been almost wauting. The southeru coast belt of the State is obviously not suited to the preferments of this arboreal species, aud in this we seelu to find the explanation. Mr. Roth Reynolds, the well-known Los Angeles taxidermist, has taken the pains to verify the followlug record. Mr. Reynolds received a wood duck (Mir sponxa) in the flesh, for mouut- ing. It proved to be a "male of the year, in uearly adult plumage," and had been killed on a ranch near Oxnard, Veutura County, about November 6, 9o5.--J. GRINNEI. L, Notes on Some California tlirds.--I.,secured an adult male and a young of tile short- eared owl (tsio accipilriius) at Los Banos, Merced Connty, on June co, 9o3. The young was still partly ill tile downy, juvenile dress, and is now in the collection of Dr. Dwight. The uorthern phalarope (Phalaropus /obatus) was abundant ou our arrival at Monterey, Jmle 3, 9o3 We saw a few swimming on a pond near there when we left, June 5. Dr. Dwight and I fouud a flock of about a dozen red phalaropes (6'rymop/d/tts f#/ica'ius) on a small pond at Point Pinos, near Monterey, Juue 3, 9o3 Those secured before a maternal government interfered were assurelug nuptial dress, but would not have bred for several weeks. Eleven sooty shearwaters (Pujfinusfuliginosus) which I collected off Chatham, Mass., on August I9, 9o4, are absolutely inseparable from eight dark-bodied shearwaters (]lltlts,griseus) which I collected with Dr. Dwight off Monterey, California, on June 6, 9o3. Both series are in the same stage of moult, which agrees with Dr. Dwight's discovery that birds of the Pacific moult two months earlier than those of the Atlautic.--Lot,:s B. tlsoP, :Yew/-/ttzet, 6'ont. Red Phase of the California Screech Owl?--An owl that bas remained iu my collection siuce the early eighties. not satisfactorily identified, and of unusual interest ou account of its small size and peculiar color, was sent to Mr. XVm. Brewster last November to be compared with his fine northwestern series of screech owls. Mr. Brewster says (in txart) in regard to my specimen: "Your ]kleascops (Male; No. 339; Haywards, California; December xS, 88) is unlike any screech owl from California that I have ever seen. I should refer it to kennicotti, or rather to the small form of kendcotl: which I described some years ago (Auk. Vol. VII, :89;, pp. ;4-r43). Indeed it agrees very closely with one of my examplesof the latter,saturalus,from Portland,Oregon." This specimen measures: length 9 (inches); wing 6.5; tail 3.30; tarsus .5o; bill from nostril .5o. The entire upper parts are tinged with a tawny or rusty cinnamon, the whole crown of head and hind-neck being darker, with the shaft-streaks of the feathers a dull black, darker than on other parts of the back, giving it a sort of hooded or mantled appearance; the legs are a bright cinnamon, dark-barred on the tarsus; the lower margins of the auriculars are so strongly - marked as to appear as bars of black; the middle of the throat is more cinnamon-colored thau other parts of the breast. I have as yet been unable to find a similar specimen in the various Pacific coast collections so far examined. So it stands as either a unique specimen of the red phase taken in California, or of the race kennicotti of the Puget Sound region.--W. Oo EMERSON, /faywards, Cal.