72 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 9 



May i8, 1902, during a very high wind that prevailed for the greater part 

 of the day, I was surprised by a Meadowlark flying up ahnost from under my 

 feet, and T soon found her nest among the rank grass partly concealed by a clod. 

 As this nest was in a very damp location the lining was thoroughly saturated, and 

 it seems hardly probable that the bird could have maintained a temperature suf- 

 ficient to have successfully completed the task of incubation. There were five 

 eggs of the Meadowlark in the nest, and two of the Valley Quail, all being slight- 

 ly incubated. 



About the middle of the following June I noticed a Meadowlark alight 

 among some dry grass and select a piece of nest material with which she took 

 flight toward an alfalfa field not far away. By watching where she settled I 

 thought I had marked down the location of her nest, and this proved to be a cor- 

 rect surmise; for on June 26 I had little difficulty in flushing the female from a 

 bulky, canopied nest in which there were five fresh eggs. 



Other nests have been seen in alfalfa fields and among thick growths of 

 weeds ; but what T consider the most unusual site was located April 23, 1908, when 

 a Meadowlark was plainly seen sitting on her nest while I was yet over one hun- 

 dred feet distant. This nest was found near a berry patch, the ground having 

 been plowed early in the winter, later a sparse, stunted growth of oats springing 

 up. At the time the nest was found the oats were not over six inches in height, 

 and so thin and scattering as to afiford almost no protection or concealment. In a 

 slight hollow, not over three-quarters of an inch in depth, were four eggs resting 

 on the bare, damp ground, without a semblance of nesting material either over, 

 under, or around them. 



The song of the Western Meadowlark, heard just at sunrise on a bright 

 February morning as the bird perches on a fence post, is one of the most pleas- 

 ing and musical of all bird voices. The silencing of it by removing legal pro 

 tection from the songster would be little short of a calamity. 



Bullock Oriole. Icterus bullocki (Swainson). 



The males of this species usually arrive in the vicinity of PVesno during the 

 last week in March. This year (1911) the first one came on the twenty-fifth. 

 In 1906 they made their appearance on the twenty-sixth, and in 190S it was 

 March twenty-eighth. Some of these first arrivals frequent the trees about town 

 and those along canals in the country, while many small companies of from two 

 or three to half a dozen may be found passing the time among the wild Howers 

 and bushes on the grassy, treeless slopes near the river. It is nearly the middle 

 of April before the females are noticeable. 



The great majority of our orioles depart about the tv/entieth of July, or at 

 the close of the nesting season. No doubt a scarcity of food during the hot, dry 

 months of August and September is responsible for the short stay of these birds. 

 Probably they scatter out and range up into the higher hills, as many summer 

 residents do in the southern part of the state. This species has been noted in 

 small numbers along the San Joaquin River during August. 



My earliest record for a complete set of eggs of the Bullock Oriole is of a 

 set of five found May 8, 1905, in which incubation was scarcely noticeable. From 

 that date on through all of May and June the birds are busy with household 

 duties. Four or five eggs generally constitute a set. but three is by no means an 



