Notes on San Luis Obispo County Birds
Notes on San Luis Obispo County Birds.
Botaurus lentiginosus. American Bit-tern. While camping aL Morro in July and August 1900, I several times saw birds which I took to be of this species, but as no specimens were secured I was not positive. However, in November of the same year I took several, thus making the record positive. The birds were fairly common and spent most of their time in the tules.
Nyticorax: n. naevius. Black-crowned Night Heron. On April 13, 1897 I saw two of these birds at Paso Robles, one of which I collected. It was a male in spring plumage and quite fat. This is the only time I have met this heron in the Upper Salinas Valley.
Rissa tridactyla pollicaris. Pacific Kittiwake. March 22, 1899, a bird was brought to me alive, which bad been captured in a plowed field six miles east of Paso Robles and probably 25 miles from the ocean. I kept it in the zoolog-ical laboratory of the High School for several days, where it ate frogs, clams and other provender. Finally it was taken away and I kept it at home for about ten days when it pined away and died April 6. I skinned the specimen and compared it with another at Stan-ford University and concluded it was Rissa t. po!licaris, and later it was posi-tively identified by Mr. Joseph Grinnell. The bird was an immature female and was badly infested with mallophaga. Mr. Grinnell informs me that this is one of the few records of the Paci fie Kitti-wake for California.
CHAS. S. THOMPSON.
Stanford University, Cal.
