98 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 9 



On the plains to the west and southwest of Fresno, fully as many occupied 

 nests could be found in March as in April, and two broods are often raised ; but 

 throughout the cultivated region east of the city it is not often that a nest con- 

 tains eggs before the first week in April, and seldom, if ever, is more than one 

 family raised in a season. 



A difficult task awaits the ornithologist who attempts to convince some peo- 

 ple that the series of liquid, musical, warbling notes, often heard in winter or 

 very early in the spring, are really produced by a '"butcher bird." I cannot agree 

 with those who suggest that the song is given from a place of concealment and 

 for the purpose of attracting smaller birds within striking distance. On every 

 occasion when this song was heard I have been able to locate the bird perched on 

 the highest point of vantage to be found. Sometimes the top of a tall weed is 

 selected, often a fence post or telephone wire is chosen, and not infrequently the 

 topmost branch of a leafless tree is made use of. In either case the bird is gen- 

 erally visible for a long distance. 



As almost all of our feathered neighbors, by song or mannerism, make 

 known to us the approach of their nesting time, it seems to me that the vocal 

 effort of our shrike is nothing less than an expression of exuberance he feels 

 at the approach of another nuptial season. 



CALiifoRNiA L^AST ViREo. Virco belli pusillus Coues. 



On more than one occasion the writer has endeavored, while listening to 

 this bird, to formulate a good description of its remarkable song, if such vocal 

 efforts could be called by that name. Each attempt, however, has been a failure. 

 The only object of the bird, seemingly, is to keep everlastingly at it, much as 

 some people sing or whistle at their work, almost unconscious of the fact them- 

 selves. Over and over, for hours at a time, the Least Vireo repeats its succes- 

 sion of seven or eight not very musical notes with a persistency worthy of a 

 better effect, yet there is a certain indefinable charm about it that prevents the 

 song from becoming monotonous. 



The volume of sound seems much too great to come from so small a bird ; 

 but the little singer never seems to tire, and continues to vocalize, always with 

 the same zest, as it searches for food totally oblivious of the presence of any other 

 creature. Sometimes, but not often, the Least Vireo raises its voice and emits 

 a little squeaky mouse-like song for a few seconds, but always drops back at 

 once to the same old grind again. 



In the Fresno district, from the first of April until the end of the nesting 

 season, the Least Vireo is a common species over much of the lower part of the 

 valley, being found along the canals and ditches. Here it frequents the willows 

 preferring the large trees, when on its foraging expeditions, rather than the more 

 dense growths of saplings, but choosing the lower clumps for suitable nesting 

 sites. 



May 25, 1906, during a steady rain that prevailed the greater part of the 

 day, I was so fortunate as to find two nests of this bird, built but a short dis- 

 tance apart, in the willows along the Gould ditch southeast of Clovis. One of 

 these nests was hung in the forks of a small, swaying, green willow branch, 

 just four feet above the ground, in a dense growth of horizontal willow shoots 

 clustered thickly around the stump of an old tree on the ditch bank. Rank 



