1913 BIRDS OF THE FRESNO DISTRICT 



109 



Winifred Wear, who has observed Varied Thrushes several times near Fresno. 

 In one case the bird was drinking from a hydrant in a front yard. February 27, 

 1907, another was seen near Fancher Creek, east of the city. The Western 

 Robins are said to be constant companions of this thrush. 



Western Bluebird. Sialia mexicana occidentalis Townsend. 



During January and February each year there occurs what I term a local 

 migration, involving, if the winter be a mild one, only a few scattered flocks of 

 this species ; but some seasons, as in 1906 and 1907, large numbers of birds are 

 affected. A succession of two or three heavy frosts is an almost infallible sign 

 for the appearance of Western Bluebirds, coming from the Sierra Nevada foot- 

 hills. At such times these birds often fly at a great height, sometimes being al- 

 most or quite indiscernible to the unaided eye, although their clear, musical, but 

 somewhat melancholy call notes ring out distinctly, and call attention to the loose 

 flocks of from seven or eight to fifty birds. 



So far as the writer has been able to learn, these wanderers do not com- 

 monly travel far to the westward, for bluebirds are always more common in the 

 vicinity of Clovis than about Fresno. It would seem that the individuals prefer 

 to remain in the hills, and leave with reluctance ; so that when forced by cold or 

 a diminishing food supply to abandon their favorite haunts, they simply scatter 

 out over the valley, remaining as near to their former home as conditions permit. 



Of a more restless nature than the Mountain Bluebird, the present species 

 seldom remains long in one place while here, a flock continually engaging in 

 short flights from one vineyard to another. By the loth of March these attractive 

 visitors have usually all disappeared. 



Although somewhat out of the district included in this paper, it might be of 

 interest to record a nest of Western Bluebird discovered on April 30, 1910. 

 While walking along the roadside near Cottonwood Creek, in Madera County, a 

 bluebird suddenly alighted on a branch not ten feet away, but seeing me she sang 

 for several seconds a peculiar, subdued, warbling medley of notes, and then flew 

 to another perch, still holding in her bill a mass of small insects of some sort. 

 A short search revealed a nest about one foot down in a knot hole in a willow 

 tree. The entrance was only three feet from the ground. There were several 

 small young in the cavity. 



The elevation at that place was about nine hundred feet, and while it was 

 but a short distance up the creek to oak timber, yet it was even a shorter dis- 

 tance back to the dry stubble fields, the home of countless horned larks. 



Mountain Bluebird. Sialia currucoides (Bechstein). 



Unlike the preceding species, this bluebird visits the lowlands regularly each 

 winter, though in varying numbers. The present year ( 191 2) this species was 

 noticed in some numbers as early as October 14, but as a rule few are seen until 

 November. The time of their greatest abundance is during the first two months 

 of the year. March 8 (1903) is the latest I have known them to remain, and 

 probably all the flocks depart at about the same time in the spring. 



During their stay in the valley the Mountain Bluebirds are associated in 

 small companies of from three or four to ten birds, with only an exceptional 

 flock numbering as many as twenty-five. 



