1913 BIRDS OF THE FRESNO DISTRICT 25 



unlike a whistle, was heard before the birds were seen. This note was uttered 

 unceasingly as the birds stepped about, bowed, and continually dipped their bills 

 into the water. One of these birds was still in his winter dress and looked al- 

 most like an albino, in rather striking contrast to the other thirteen which had as- 

 sumed their full breeding plumage ; but the odd bird appeared to be enjoying the 

 sport as much as any of them. 



I have always thought that this species showed a marked preference for the 

 most stagnant and uninviting ponds. Several such places that the writer occas- 

 ionally visits are to be found a few miles south of Caruthers, and although the 

 water is sometimes so foul as to be almost black yet the Avocets gather there in 

 some numbers. About the borders of these ponds may sometimes be found 

 myriads of flies that seem to be attracted by some substance floating just at the 

 water's edge. It seems not improbable that these flies form one of the staple 

 articles of diet for the Avocets at this season. 



I have mentioned the, to me, remarkable instance of Avocets being seen on 

 their nests while the observer drove past in an auto ; but I have never been able, 

 by any strategy, to discover an Avocet upon her nest, except in just one instance. 

 On this occasion I concealed myself in a ditch and waited until with the aid of 

 a glass a bird was finally seen to go to her nest. Three others that appeared to 

 have resumed the duties of incubation w^ere found to be sitting on the bare 

 ground their fears having evidently not been entirely allayed. In fact I 

 know of no birds whose nests are so hard to discover. 



Always on the alert it is nothing unusual for one of these big fellows to 

 come out to meet the naturalist before he has approached to within a half-mile 

 of a nesting colony. The presence of a man anywhere within two hundred yards 

 is sure to call out half a dozen angry birds that fly over with peculiar stiff flight, 

 and wath long bill pointing in one direction and the still longer legs stretched out 

 full-length in the opposite. "Pleek, pleek, pleek," they scream as they dart at an 

 intruder in a most threatening manner. 



Near Firebaugh on May 30, 1912, I found Avocets and Stilts nesting near a 

 large, shallow, muddy pond near the railroad, and it was there that the one in- 

 stance of an Avocet being seen on her nest was noted. Nests of Stilts vary won- 

 derfully in amount and variety of nesting material used ; but our Avocets seem 

 to have adopted one style of architecture almost exclusively. The typical nest is 

 little more than a shallow depression in the earth with no lining whatever under 

 the eggs but with quite a substantial rim around them so that it may be said to 

 resemble a large, loosely built, and much flattened blackbird's nest with the bot- 

 tom removed. One is given the impression that this nest might have been hastily 

 woven together, carried for some distance and set down over the four large 

 pointed eggs with the idea of fencing them in rather than of affording a com- 

 fortable nest for the young. 



Sometimes the great clay-colored eggs are so plastered with mud from the 

 feet of the sitting bird as to resemble clods of earth. While this is probably not 

 an act of precaution on the part of the birds yet it certainly serves to make the 

 nests much more inconspicuous. 



Black-necked Stilt. Himantopus mexicanus (Miiller). 



To every true lover of birds there comes, at some time during the first six 



