342 GAME BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA 



mediately. They claimed dominion over so wide a territory, and ap- 

 peared so anxious to guard it all equally, that it was difficult to locate 

 their nests from their actions. ' ' 



In southwestern Saskatchewan, Bent (19075, p. 425) says that 

 ' ' While conducting their courtships, in May, the Avocets were always 

 amusing and often grotesque in their movements, as they danced 

 along the shore or waded in the shallow water holding their wings 

 fully extended, tipping from side to side, as if balancing themselves. 

 Sometimes they would run rapidly along, crouching close to the 

 ground, frequently nodding or bowing and sometimes they would lie 

 flat on the water or ground, with wings outstretched as if in agony. 

 At such times they were very tame, apparently oblivious of all else, 

 and could be easily approached." 



In California, the Avocet nests chiefly during the months of May 

 and June. The earliest seasonal record of nesting known to us is 

 that by Tyler (MS) who found an adult and four young about one- 

 fourth grown at Helm, Fresno County, April 20, 1914. In southern 

 California the species has been recorded as nesting from May 3 to 

 July 6, at Santa Ana, Orange County (Grinnell, 1898, p. 16). In the 

 San Joaquin Valley it was nesting at Mendota, Fresno County, May 

 27, 1911, and near Firebaugh, Fresno County, May 30, 1912 (Tyler, 

 1913&, pp. 24, 25), at Los Banos, Merced County, April 26, 1912 

 (Beck, MS), and May 23, 1914 (H. C. Bryant, 1914e, p. 226). At 

 Lower Klamath Lake, Avocets were nesting at the time of a visit 

 June 2 to 9, 1914 (H. C. Bryant, 1914e, p. 233). 



Nests are usually placed on the bare ground in the vicinity of the 

 alkaline ponds where the birds feed, or upon muddy islands in such 

 ponds or lakes; they have also been noted in tall grass at a consider- 

 able distance from water. The nest is at best a crude affair, composed 

 of a small aggregation of grasses or weed stems which constitutes a 

 platform containing a slight depression in which the eggs rest. Tyler 

 (1913&, p. 25) describes the nests in the Fresno district as follows: 



The typical nest is little more than a shallow depression in the earth with 

 no lining whatever under the eggs but with quite a substantial rim around 

 them so that it may be said to resemble a large, loosely built, and much 

 flattened blackbird's nest with the bottom removed. One is given the impres- 

 sion that this nest might have been hastily woven together, carried for some 

 distance and set down over the four large pointed eggs with the idea of 

 fencing them in rather than of affording a comfortable nest for the young. 



An exceptional condition of affairs was observed by Lamb and 

 Howell (1913, p. 117) at Buena Vista Lake, Kern County, where 

 Avocets and Stilts were nesting on common ground. Nests of the 

 Avocets were noted containing from five to eight eggs, probably the 

 result of two or more females laying in the same nest; indeed, some 

 nests contained eggs of both species. 



