26 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 9 



months of the year, a flood tide of enthusiasm that usually presages a red-letter 

 day in the fields or woods. To some this comes when February gives us a suc- 

 cession of warm sunny days, and sooner or later a trip for Horned Owl's eggs is 

 the result. Others may ward off February's magic spell only to go trampmg 

 away som.e blustery March morning in search of the aerie of a pair of Golden 

 Eagles. Others still find an irresistible impulse drawing them away toward the 

 hills just when the blossoming oaks suggest Bush-tits' nests or the glim.pse of 

 some rare migrant warbler. Thus we all have our favorite and the writer, who 

 has often spent the first four months in oological idleness, suddenly in May falls 

 a victim to that intangible something that draws men away from the cares and 

 responsibilities of a business world. 



Imagine a salt-grass pasture, a pond shimmering in the distance, the odor 

 of alkali weeds, and half a dozen long-legged, black and white waders. Xot an 

 attractive scene the uninitiated would say, especially when viewed from a dusty 

 roadside with the summer sun beating down mercilessly ; yet the most pleasant 

 days in my whole experience as a bird student have been spent around some 

 such place. 



The Black-necked Stilts arrive in the vicinitv" of Fresno about the middle 

 of April, although the date of arrival seems to vary somewhat, and the first of 

 that month in some seasons would find the birds already on hand. It is quite 

 probable that certain pairs are either very tardy migrants or for some reason 

 delay their nesting until long after the majorit)^ of the Stilts have begim to as- 

 sume family cares. One season when in several colonies the date for complete 

 sets of fresh eggs was about May 20. I was very certain that no Stilts were nest- 

 ing about two ponds that I frequently visited. I was therefore considerably sur- 

 prised to find a colony in possession of each of these ponds in Mid- June, the 13th 

 to be exact, and a number of nests contained fresh eggs. This, however, is not 

 sufficient proof of retarded migration in view of the fact that in some colonies 

 where nesting began early a few birds could still be found that were incubating 

 eggs up to the first of July. At this time large young were in evidence some of 

 which were not distinguishable from tlieir parents at a little distance. Unless 

 in some manner molested I think it unlikely that more than one set of eggs is 

 laid each spring, but I am convinced that in not a few cases the birds are com- 

 pelled to make a second, and perhaps a third, attempt before they succeed in rais- 

 ing a brood. 



As these nesting colonies of Stilts are invariably in pastures with cattle 

 tramping everj^vhere 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 bv irrigation is liable to find that bv the time sets of 



