1913 BIRDS OF THE FRESNO DISTRICT 99 



grass and wild oats partly concealed the nest, and a neater, more skillfully woven 

 one it would be hard to imagine. The upper walls were less than a quarter of 

 an inch in thickness but were so well put together with very fine dry grass stems, 

 plant fibers, and cotton, as to be quite waterproof. The inside diameter 

 was one and three-quarter inches while the interior depth was one and 

 one-half inches. There were four fresh eggs. 



In marked contrast was the second nest, which was suspended in plain view, 

 from a dead branch three feet above the ground, near the path along the ditch 

 bank. The very lack of concealment made this nest rather difficult to detect, 

 even after I had first discovered it, as on a subsequent visit it required no little 

 search to find it. The owner was covering four heavily incubated eggs. 



Other nests found were in similar situations often being suspended directly 

 above the running water and scarcely a foot from it. In two cases that came 

 under my notice, however, the nests were fully twelve feet above the ditch in 

 large willows, one of them being artfully concealed in one of several tufts of a 

 cotton-like substance that had lodged in the branches. The nesting season of 

 this species is a very short one, as my earliest record is May 15, 1910, for an 

 incomplete set of fresh eggs, while the few nests discovered after the last week 

 in May were found to contain small young. Justice to the various owners of 

 the several nests discovered, compels me to confess that they were not detected 

 by any skill on my part ; for in every case, so far as I remember, I was attracted 

 from some distance by the persistent singing of one of the birds, either on or 

 very close to the nest. 



California Yellow Warbler. Dendroica aestiva brewsteri Grinnell. 



Yellow Warblers are common summer visitants in limited numbers along 

 nearly all the water courses in the valley. I have not found them breeding any- 

 where except in the willow association that marks the larger canals and sloughs. 

 This network of ditches is selected as a migration route by this species, as well 

 as by nearly all the others of the smaller migrants that pass through this part 

 of the state. Although quite a noisy, persistent singer the Yellow Warbler is 

 not much in evidence in spite of its gay plumage. 



Ordinarily this species arrives in the vicinity of Fresno during the last week 

 in April, and remains, probably, until late July. All of the nests the writer has 

 examined, were composed to a large extent of a silvery colored, long plant fiber, 

 and were placed from six to thirty feet above the ground in the small forks 01 

 willow trees, where the colors of the nest blended well with the light colored 

 branches. 



Four eggs almost invariably constitute the set, and I have found them far 

 advanced in incubation on May 30, and only slightly incubated in mid-June. 



Audubon Warbler. Dendroica auduboni auduboni (Townsend). 



One of the characteristic winter visitants to the valley is the Audubon 

 Warbler, that restless mite of animation, whose energy seems unlimited and 

 whose appetite is never quite satisfied. With a businesslike "chick" he sallies 

 forth from a leafless cottonwood to seize a passing insect, then with the same 

 "chick" he resumes his search among the branches for whatever may oflfer. The 

 trees around a farmhouse, and a lonely grove far from the sound of human 



