28 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 9 



tance of three or four hundred feet. In direct contract was the other nest; for 

 it was artfully hidden among the rather rank salt-grass some distance from the 

 pond, and when the sitting bird flattened herself upon it, as is the custom of 

 this species when endeavoring to escape observation, she might have readily 

 been overlooked from any nearby point. 



The actions of different pairs of Stilts when their nesting colonies are in- 

 vaded are also variable. Sometimes a flock of noisy screeching birds will press 

 close about the intruder, some hanging in the air on rapidly beating wings, others 

 bouncing along the ground by leaps and bounds, raising and lowering their 

 wings continually ; while others go through every conceivable motion both on 

 the ground and in the air. It seems that the larger the colony the more demon- 

 strative the birds are ; for in several instances where only one or two pairs were 

 breeding the female would sneak from the nest in a guilty manner and quietly 

 join her mate on the opposite side of the pond, where they would remain almost 

 motionless or feed nervously along the margin of the pond. 



In all the nests I have examined I have never found an unquestionably 

 complete set of more or less than four eggs. I have been impressed with the 

 fact that nearly every set has three eggs that are very similar in size, shape, or 

 coloration, while the fourth egg differs greatly in one or sometimes all these 

 points. This seems to suggest that possibly at one time the Stilts, or their an- 

 cestors, laid but three eggs, as some of the plovers do at the present time, the 

 addition of the fourth egg being perhaps an accomplishment acquired at a more 

 recent date. 



I know of no other eggs that show such great variation in shape, size, and 

 markings ; the ground color varies from a delicate pale green to a rich buff, while 

 the markings almost defy description being sometimes in the shape of small 

 spots and again appearing as large irregular blotches with every possible 

 intermediate type. 



As the Stilts are seldom hunted and have very few natural enemies they 

 do not appear to have decreased in numbers and should be able to hold their 

 own for many years to come. Among the farmers the name "jack snipe" is 

 usually applied to this species. 



As these lines are written the nesting season has closed. Soon will the 

 Stilts be making the journey to their winter home; but they will leave me three 

 priceless gifts, two of which I may share with my friends, but the other, selfishly, 

 I must keep to myself alone. 



The pointed eggs, so curiously scrawled and blotched with brown and black, 

 that nestle in a tray in my cabinet afford undoubted evidence of the nesting of 

 this species and will be viewed with interest and profit by the friends who call 

 from time to time to discuss things ornithological. Then, too, the field notes 

 that have been taken show many side lights on the life history of this most inter- 

 esting species. These notes can be published abroad and those naturalists whose 

 lot is not cast in a region inhabited by Stilts may read something of their habits. 

 The best gift of all, however, I cannot share with anyone. For graven indelibly 

 on the tablets of memory, yet illegible to anyone else, are the recollections of 

 many pleasant moments spent with my favorite birds ; and through the long 

 winter evenings T shall at times catch fleeting glimpses of twinkling ponds, of 



