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Tricolored Blackbirds (Agelaius tricolor) in Nesting Swamps Near Los Banos, Cal. 



''came across" at last (he was really very nice about it, you know), and work was 

 resumed with a shout of relief which made the moon oscillate. Bert, meanwhile, had 

 been forwarded to San Ardo on the Salinas, where he awaited my coming by auto. As 

 an earnest of the good things ahead, I may mention that as I hove to for lunch beside 

 a little stream in the Los Cruces country (on the 12th of May), I spied an Anna Hum- 

 mer on her nest. Within one hour and within an area covered by a vigorous cast of a 

 stone, I found nests occupied or building of our four local species of hummers — and 

 made out a very decent meal besides. 



At San Ardo we camped under the willows near the meandering Salinas. The 

 birds hereabouts were commonplace, all save Costa Hummer (Calypte costae) whose 

 nest we took. But we were glad to get sets of the local Bewick Wren (Thryomanes 

 bewicki spilurus or drymoecus), California Least Vireo (Vireo belli pusillus), and the 

 San Francisco Towhee (Pipilo maculatus falcifer) ; not to mention a nest with four 

 eggs of the Black-headed Grosbeak, which was absolutely buried in a mass of freshly 

 plucked willow leaves. 



We next visited the Pinnacles, in San Benito County; or, rather, we were halted 

 for our nest work on the Monterey line immediately to the West. Western Gnat- 

 catcher (3n/o)) were the leading feature in this open oak country, with such common- 

 places as Ash-throated Flycatcher n/5 and Lawrence Goldfinch n/5. On the way out 

 we flung down for a late camp by the roadside. A mist arising about midnight, I 

 crawled out to pull the machine up under a spreading oak. The first pull of five or six 

 feet didn't satisfy me, so I went around front to crank up again, when pfwish went a 

 Valley Quail from my very feet. Stooping carefully, I felt about and clutched the warm 

 eggs. There were a lot of them — twenty, I learned in the morning — and they look 

 equally bewitching in a photograph and in the M. C. O. drawer. 



Our next major step was at Dos Palos, in Merced County, in the heart of the over- 

 flowed country (although this section usually takes its name from Los Banos). We 

 pitched camp, May 27th, by the roadside, in the shelter of the only row of eucalyptus 

 trees in this section, a landmark for miles around. Here we spent seventeen busy days, 

 days full of ornithological adventure and minor hardship withal, for the season was 

 unusually backward, cold and windy. And when it did warm up, toward the end of our 

 stay, the mosquitoes increased to the point of desperation. But the swamps were teem- 

 ing with life, and a day spent wading, knee-deep, in water none too warm, is sheer joy 

 if the birds are numerous enough. 



Page twenty-two 



