1913 BIRDS OF THE FRESNO DISTRICT 53 



as they swooped viciously at tiie big fellow. At my too near approach, the Road 

 runner made off down the road a few steps and dodged into a vineyard. As it 

 turned I saw some object held in its bill and thought it looked very much like a 

 nestling bird of some sort ; at any rate the plunder was so valuable that the sprmt- 

 er was willing to risk a severe beating from the Kingbirds in order to make away 

 with it. 



California Cuckoo. Coccyzus americanus occidentalis Ridgway. 



Cuckoos occur during the summer months in the willow thickets along the 

 San Joaquin River and a number of the larger canals. They are not much in 

 evidence, and their retiring habits make it difficult to determine in what numbers 

 they are present, but they surely cannot be called common at any time. Their 

 call note, a half-subdued "kuk-kuk-kuk", is sometimes heard during June or July 

 from a tangle of willow brush and vines, but the bird is actually seen much less 

 often. 



July 4, 1907, a Cuckoo was seen several times in a willow tree near ttie rtver, 

 a short distance above Lane's Bridge. There may have been a nest nearby, as 

 this bird was remarkably fearless and came within less than twenty feet of me 

 several times, at intervals giving voice to its call when perched on a brancli in 

 plain view. Six days later I heard the same call from a thicket on Fancher Creek 

 some six miles northeast of Fresno. 



In all my prowling about the ditches near Clovis I never but once found a 

 nest of the California Cuckoo and the discovery of that one was entirely acci- 

 dental. July 10, 1902, while passing a small, somewhat isolated, willow that 

 stood at the very water's edge in the Gould ditch south of Clovis, I thought I saw 

 a nest, and upon stepping around the tree for a better view, a Cuckoo, with an 

 unsteady flight, not unlike that of a nighthawk, flew down the ditch to a place of 

 concealment. Just nine feet from the ground, at the junction of the trunk and 

 the first branch, was a bulky nest of coarse twigs, lined with willow catkins, in 

 which rested two small birds. They were nearly black in color, with the feathers 

 not yet through their sheaths, this giving the downless little creatures a rough, 

 almost thorny, appearance. From the position they occupied in the nest their 

 bills pointed skyward. When I picked one of them up he clung to the nest lin- 

 ing uttering a faint squeaking note. The parent bird was not again seen or heard 

 during my examination of her home. 



Belted Kingfisher. Ceryle alcyon (Linnaeus). 



The ninth and tenth days of August, 1905, the author spent, in company 

 with two companions, along the San Joaquin River a short distance below Friant. 

 At that time Kingfishers were rather common, and were often seen flying along 

 the course of the stream, or perched either singly or in pairs on dead branches 

 overlooking the water. Their rattling calls were frequently heard. It is possible 

 that they may breed in small numbers in the banks that are so numerously tenant- 

 ed by Barn Owls, but their presence there has never been detected during the 

 nesting season. 



In late September a few of these birds may sometimes be found along some 

 of the larger irrigation canals, fishing for frogs or minnows near the headgates. 

 September 21, 1903, one was observed about two miles north of Fresno, and the 



