Colorado Notes
Colorado Notes
Hon. James Cowie, while hunting ducks on a lake northeast of Boulder, on September 15, 1907, saw a flock of six birds which he failed to recognize and shot one for identification, turning it over to the University of Colorado. It proved to be an immature Sabine Gull(Xema sabinii). Altho Capt. Berthoud reported that the species was common in the early days of the settlement of the State, I only find six actual records prior to this one, all but one being from the plains near the eastern base of the mountains from Denver northward, the other being from Breckenridge, at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Whatever may have been the case as a matter of past history, the species is certainly rare enough hereabouts in recent years.
On September 14, 1907, while passing Church's Lake a few miles north of Denver, I noted several White-winged Scoters (Oidemia deglandi) within a few feet of the train, with some other ducks and coots. After allowing time to make sure of their identity, but before I had counted them, the birds all took flight, but there were not less than half a dozen of the Scoters. I find but nine previous records for the State, all October and November records.
The Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) is a rare duck in Colorado nowadays. I have heard of none recently except three killed near Boulder by Hon. James Cowie and Mr. Bert Werley about three years ago, no record having been made of the date. I have seen two of the specimens.
There seems to be but one record of Syrnium varium in the literature of Colorado ornithology; so I have hesitated about mentioning a note which I find in the note-books of Denis Gale. He mentions having seen a pair in the valley near Boulder in 1886, but gives no particulars and no exact date. The note was made three years afterwards, in 1889, when he says he looked again for the pair which he had seen there three years before but failed to find them. Upon careful consideration I have concluded that his identification was probably correct, as he was quite familiar with the owls of the region, and there is no other that he would be apt to mistake for this. The Spotted Owl (Syrnium occidentale) which might be easily mistaken in the field for the Barred Owl, is a species of the southwest, coming only into southern Colorado, so that the eastern species is much more likely to be found east of the Front Range and in the northern part of the State. However, with these rare records, one never feels safe unless the circumstances under which the birds are seen, the opportunity for careful inspection, the condition of the light, etc., are known.
JULIUS HENDERSON
Museum, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
