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Two Avian Stragglers Within the State of Colorado

Horace G. Smith

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Pelecanus occidentalis. Brown Pelican. While on a collecting trip for the museum of the State Historical and Natural History Society of Colorado, the writer chanced upon an adult mounted specimen of this species in the shop of a taxidermist who, upon being questioned as to its history, proffered the information that it was killed by P. J. Engelbrecht, at Wood's Lake, near Thomasville, Colorado, in June, 1903.

Accordingly I wrote to Mr. Engelbrecht (who is proprietor of the summer resort at the lake) for further particulars, and received a letter to the effect that he happened to be out fishing with a party when he notist a monster bird alight on a stake at the far end of the lake. He took his gun and rowing within shooting distance succeded in securing the specimen. This was either the last of June or the first of July, 1908.

He further stated that he had been in the tourist business for ten years and that this was the only one of these birds he had ever seen in the locality.

In consideration of the fact that this is the first record of the capture of this species in the state, Mr. Engelbrecht kindly donated the specimen to our Society.

Bubo virginianus lagophonus. In the collection of Jonas Brothers, Taxidermists, of this city I secured a mounted specimen of the Great Horned Owl which is much darker than the form usually found in Colorado, and which the proprietors assured me was shot by a local hunter at Morrison, Jefferson County, Colorado, during the month of October, 1909, and brought to them in the flesh.

Believing the specimen might prove to belong to one of the dark Pacific Coast forms, and as a collection of these birds was not accessible to me for comparison, the specimen was sent to the Biological Survey for examination, and it was returned labelled by H. C. O[berholser] as Bubo virginianus lagophonus.

This variety, recently described by Oberholser (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. XXVII, 1904, p. 185) is said to be closely allied to saturatus; indeed the A. O. U. Committee on "Check List" seems to have regarded it as a synonym of saturatus (14th Sup., Auk XXV, 1908, p. 392).

In any event the bird is a new record for Colorado. Mr. E. W. Nelson, of the Biological Survey, in referring to the specimen writes that ” * * * it is a southern extension of the range of the subspecies lagophonus which belongs much farther north in the Rocky Mountains, and it is evident this specimen is a fall straggler."

Asst. Curator Colorado State Historical and Natural History Society.

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