Sept., 1917 RED LETTER DAYS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 157 



Although we had been told that there wasn't a bird on the shore at this 

 time of year — July 26 — as we looked over at a lagoon near the lake, lined up 

 along its borders we discovered a row of forms that proved to be Ducks, which 

 when we got near rose with a roar, flying out in a black mass and circling 

 about till they finally came down in the lake. Altogether there were perhaps 

 two dozen Mallards, fifty Gadwell, and two hundred Cinnamon Teal. 



Other larger black forms, about thirty of them, through the field glass 

 proved to be White-faced Glossy Ibises. As this was before we had been to 

 San Jacinto Lake and these were the first Ibises I had ever seen, I could hardly 

 believe 'my good fortune. Standing around taking their comfort, or walking 

 about humped over like Curlew, probing with their long decurved bills, at the 

 distance they looked black enough to justify their common local name — Black 

 Curlew. As we approached they rose, with a loud quank, quank, and circled 

 around in a close flock looking as decorative as figures on a Japanese screen, 

 each bird a segment of a circle with its long extended drooping neck and legs. 

 As they swung around and the sun struck them, their long necks glowed dark 

 maroon and their backs shone dark green. It was a picture for an artist. 

 After circling low around us they dropped down in the place from which they 

 had arisen, after which they stalked about unconcernedly, probing the ground. 

 They must also have been feeding along the lake shore for in places the whitish 

 crust of dried algae was as riddled as a long used target. 



As I stood open-eyed watching the Ibises, another large striking bird ap- 

 peared on the film of this rare moving picture — a Black-necked Stilt — its black 

 wings raised over its black and white body, as it lit and stood stilted up on its 

 long pink legs. It came out on the edge of the lagoon and ran up and down 

 with a nervous, nasal en, en, making itself so conspicuous that we quickly ar- 

 rived at a conclusion. As we advanced it was joined by five other anxious par- 

 ents. And three pairs of Black-necked Stilts can make as much excitement 

 as two hundred and fifty Ducks ! The whole disturbance, as far as revealed, 

 was due to the fact that three half-grown young were running around trying 

 to hide on a narrow grassy spit of land between the lake and the lagoon. One 

 Stilt, in its calmest moments, is enough to occupy all one's attention, running 

 along the shore with airily hinging legs, or wading out in the water on its long- 

 pink stilts. But when six anxious parents fly around you with long necks and 

 legs extended, distractedly crying en, en, or bursting out into a loud harsh 

 barking koivn, kown, and after working themselves up draw on their imagina- 

 tions for methods of decoy, were it not all done in such tragic earnest, they 

 would indeed be laughably droll figures. Bending one knee and throwing up a 

 long pink leg as if to get a better purchase, one would flap the opposite long 

 black wing like the sail of a windmill till it almost touched the ground. Then, 

 stiff-legged, the acrobatic Stilt would tilt forward against the wind till it 

 seemed as if its small stilted up body would surely tip over on its bill ; and 

 then again it would begin violently flapping its wings at its sides. Or one of 

 the droll birds would merely run along the beach eloquently shaking its wings. 



"While absorbedly watching the Stilts my attention was attracted to some 

 big dim forms in the background that, with the glass, proved to be a row of 

 Great Blue Herons on the edge of a lagoon, sitting in picturesque attitudes with 

 necks variously folded up. More wary than any of the other birds, perhaps be- 

 cause of their enormous size, one by one they flew silently away, their gray 

 forms fading into their background. After a time I rediscovered them, a row 



