85 



33. Nyctanassa violacea? Yellow-crowned Night Her- 



on. — Some of the night herons seen by Rhoads ''ap- 

 peared to belong to the yellow-crowned species." The 

 delta region is, however, far north of the known winter 

 range of violacea. 



34. Grus mexicana. Sandhill Crane. — ''Abundant" 



(Rhoads). This species is at best a winter resident, 

 and was not observed by th^ writer in April. Accord- 

 ing to Grinnell (1914, 120), moreover, the migrant 

 cranes of the Colorado Valley are more likely to be 

 Grus canadensis than Grus mexicana. 



35. Porzana Carolina. Sora. — Several were seen on the flats 



of Hardy's Colorado, where I collected a single female 

 on the evening of March 30. 



36. Fulica americana. Coot. — Exceedingly abundant on 



all waterways — the Hardy River and its sloughs, the 

 edges of Volcano Lake, and the irrigation ditches and 

 ponds. It seems strange that the Coot does not 

 appear in Rhoads's list. 



37. Steganopus tricolor. Wilson's Phalarope. — At a dis- 



tance of only a few feet, I watched a Wilson's Phala- 

 rope in an irrigation pond on the United States- 

 Mexico border, on April 14. The lone Phalarope was 

 in company with a large flock of Black-necked 

 Stilts. 



38. Recurvirostra americana. Avocet. — Common at Vol- 



cano Lake, and along the overflow of the Hardy, on 

 April 25 and 26. Not observed by Rhoads in Febru- 

 ary. 



39. Himantopus mexicanus. Black-necked Stilt. — A 



flock of about thirty adults and three downy young 

 was seen in a pond on the border, at Mexicali, on 

 April 14. The young birds were evidently newly- 

 hatched, and were swimming among their long-legged, 

 wading elders. This observation constitutes perhaps 

 the earliest breeding record for the species. 



We found Black-necked Stilts abundant along the 

 flooding Hardy during the latter part of April. 



