90 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 9 



nest was more like the work of a Heermann Song Sparrow tlian the usual type 

 of grosbeak nest, being composed of strips of grass blades and stems, lined with 

 finer grass stems and a few horse-hairs. Incubation had begun, in the three pale 

 blue eggs that composed the set. 



Western Tanager. Piranga ludoviciana (Wilson). 



This is one of the species that occur commonly in the higher mountains but 

 are seen in the valley only as stragglers. Miss Winifred Wear records a Tanager 

 seen within the city on May 8, 1907, and the author observed a beautiful male 

 near the Scandinavian Colony schoolhouse the first day of June, 1908. This bird 

 flew into the lower branches of a mulberry tree at the roadside, and I drove past 

 only a few feet away. From all appearances the bird was perfectly healthy; but 

 I suspect that possibly it had been injured earlier in the season, or it would hard- 

 ly have remained in the heat of the valley at the time of the nesting season of this 

 species in the high Sierras. 



The present season (1912) seemed to bring quite a migration wave of Tan- 

 agers. On May 12 fully a dozen were seen in a half hour's walk along the Gould 

 ditch near Tarpey. All appeared to be males in the brightest plumage and were 

 quite fearless. One fine fellow, panting with the heat, perched not ten feet away 

 while I slowly walked past. Later, on the twentieth day of the same month, an- 

 other was seen flying from a bush at the roadside near Easton, south of Fresno. 



Western Martin. Progne subis hesperia Brewster. 



The Western Martin has been observed on only two occasions, and 

 both of the birds were probably migrants. August 22, 1904, just at dusk in the 

 evening a Martin flew over in company with several Barn Swallows traveling 

 toward the south. The long wings and wonderfully rapid flight gave a strange 

 batlike appearance to this bird, which soon disappeared into the fast approaching 

 night. Some days previous to this another individual was seen under much the 

 same conditions, but none have been observed since that time. 



Miss Winifred Wear tells of having noticed this species near Riverview, 

 April 27, 1907. 



Clife Swallow. Petrochelidon lunifrons lunifrons (Say). 



The first arrivals of this species in the spring precede the Barn Swallows by 

 two or three days, the two species not at any time traveling in company so far as 

 T have observed, although it is not an uncommon sight to see Clif? Swallows and 

 the handsome Violet-greens traveling together. As recorded in The Condor 

 (xiii, 191 1, p. 168), the earhest records I have in the spring are March 14, 1903 

 and 1904, but the species seldom becomes numerous until the last week of that 

 month. In late September large flocks may be seen journeying toward their win- 

 ter home south of the United States. September 23, 1904, a warm, cloudy day, 

 was remarkable for the great number of these birds that were seen in migratioiL 



As the blufifs along the river bear but slight resemblance to clilTs they do not 

 ofifer much attraction in the way of nesting sites, but nevertheless a small colony 

 of these swallows sometimes nests in comparative safety just above Lane's Bridge 

 on the Madera County side. Aside from the river bluffs there is not the slightest 

 semblance of a clifif anvwhere near Fresno, and as a consequence the Cliff Swal- 



