BLACK-NECKED STILT 49 



hensive is the bird of the growing necessity, that us often as she leaves ihe 

 nest she will seize loose material and fling it over her shoulder for future 

 use. The eggs themselves, protectively colored in bister and black, are mauled 

 about aud soiled iu the mud ; but the day is saved. I have seen a stilt, 

 painfully conscious no doubt, squatted on a truncated cone of vegetation a 

 inches iu height and as broad across the top, a veritable Noah's ark of safety. 



John G. Tyler (1913) says : 



Nesting colonies of these waders in the Fresno district are never very large, 

 consisting of from 6 to 20 pairs, as a rule, the most extensive one of which 

 1 have any knowledge containing an average of about i>0 pairs each season. 

 Possibly the numerous small ponds will not support a great many birds, and as 

 suitable pastures abound in certain sections it is not a difficult matter for all 

 the birds to be accommodated without any crowding. As these nesting 

 colonies of stilts are invariably in pastures with cattle tramping everywhere 

 over the fields, it seems almost a miracle that any of the eggs escape being- 

 destroyed ; and yet I have not one iota of positive proof of such a disaster 

 ever overtaking a stilt's nest, while in many instances I have known the eggs 

 to hatch safely almost under the feet of stock. It is known that few animals 

 will purposely step on any living object of a size large enough to be noticed, 

 and the writer is convinced that a stilt simply remains on her nest and by her 

 vociferousness and possibly even with a few vigorous thrusts of her long bill 

 causes a grazing cow to direct her course away from the nest. A lack of 

 judgment causes many nests to be abandoned each year, and a colony of 

 stilts that are not able to distinguish between a permanent pond and one 

 that has been caused by irrigation is liable to find that by the time sets of eggs 

 are complete the water has disappeared and a new nesting site must be chosen. 

 Fortunately the larger colonies always seem to be located near the permanent 

 ponds, but there are numerous scattering pairs that are deceived each summer. 



I have often been surprised at the great diversity of nesting sites, even in 

 the same colony, it being not an unusual occurrence to find nests entirely sur- 

 rounded by water — little islands of mud and sticks often built up out of water 

 several inches deep. Not less common are the platforms of dried grass placed 

 just at the water's edge, or the slight excavations that, killdeerlike, are placed 

 on the bare ground a hundred yards or more from the nearest water. In 

 one colony the majority of the nests were built on a levee that extended through 

 the pond and were so near the waters edge that, although most of the nests 

 were quite elaborate platforms of dry grass aud twigs, the lower parts of 

 the eggs were wet. Undoubtedly a high wind would have caused the wavelets 

 to break over the levee. At this same place there were several nests far out 

 on the open dry ground without even a spear of grass for concealment or 

 protection, and with hardly a vestige of nesting material under the eggs. At 

 one pond where two pairs had taken up summer quarters there was one nest 

 on the bare black ground where the white breast of the sitting female was the 

 most conspicuous object imaginable and could be seen at a glance from a 

 distance of three or four hundred feet. In direct contrast was the other nest ; 

 for it was artfully hidden among rather rank salt grass some distance from 

 the pond, and when the sitting bird flattened herself upon it, as is the custom 

 of this species when endeavoring to escape observation, she might have readily 

 been overlooked from any near-by point. 



The actions of different pairs of stilts when their nesting colonies are in- 

 vaded are also variable. Sometimes a flock of noisy screeching birds will press 

 close about the intruder, some hanging in the air on rapidly beating wings, 



