22 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 9 



center of its abundance seems to be the over-flowed swampy areas near Wheat- 

 ville. 



Late in May, 1908, a dam was thrown across a certain large irrigation ditch 

 near Clovis and a new ditch formed ahnost parallel to the old one. Just enough 

 water leaked through the head gate to keep the water in the original ditch from 

 lowering noticably ; but as there was no outlet it soon became stagnant under 

 the warm sun and before many days seemed alive with frogs and small fish. Al- 

 though a Green Heron had never been seen along this ditch previous to that 

 time, yet the writer soon became aware of the presence of a couple of timid, awk- 

 ward birds that flapped noisily from willow to willow, all the while giving voice 

 to a series of guttural squawks, grunts, and croakings. 



A careful search on June 13 along the half-mile fringe of willows resulted 

 in finding a thin, frail, platform nest built on a small horizontal branch, almost at 

 its extremity, and sixteen feet above the water. On this saucer-shaped structure 

 of long, dry, wire-like twigs the owner was covering four very slightly incubated 

 eggs. Not until I had climbed half the distance to the nest did the bird leave 

 and then she perched nearby and occasionally barked her disapproval. 



The second nest of this pair of birds, built after their first set had been 

 removed to the author's collection, was found on June 28 in a tree scarcely fifty 

 yards from the first one. This nest held three eggs and was about thirty feet 

 from the ground. July 9 this bird was patiently incubating, and from the ap- 

 pearance of the nest a couple of months later I felt sure that a family of young 

 herons were successfully raised in it. 



Black-crow ne;d Night Heron. Nycticorax nycticorax naevius (Boddaert). 



A common resident throughout the valley, occurring in large numbers over 

 the marshy areas and found singly or in small companies wherever an old dead 

 slough or ditch occurs. This species seems to prefer the vicinity of stagnant or 

 muddy slow-flowing water, rather than the clearer, more rapid ditches. 



There was at one time, and probably still is, a large breeding colony in the 

 willows that border Fish Slough near New Hope. The farmers in that 

 region irrigate large tracts of gram and alfalfa, using water from the slough, 

 and often when the water is turned out there will be thousands of carp and other 

 fish left on the ground. To this wriggling, squirming feast the herons swarm by 

 hundreds, and it is probably the presence of such an abundance of food during 

 the summer that has brought together the large nesting colony at this place. 



Sandhill Crane. Grus mexicana (Miiller). 



It seems quite reasonable to suppose that both the Sandhill and Little Brown 

 cranes occur at times in the Fresno district ; but the great majority of the host 

 of our winter visitant cranes are mexicana, and the few specimens that I have 

 had an opportunity to examine measured well beyond the maximum for 

 canadensis. 



Our cranes first arrive in September and are fairly common in suitable 

 places all through the winter, beginning their northward flight sometimes by 

 March 20, but usually not until the first of April. Two or three weeks are re- 

 quired for all the flocks to have gotten safely under way on their long journey, 

 and I have sometimes suspected that certain individuals occasionally remained all 



