1S6 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XIII 
custom in the eastern states, for just recently, August 19, 1911, I observed on 
the Herke ranch in Parker Bottom a dove’s nest on a horizontal limb of a willow 
and another, from which the young had just flown, on a horizontal apple limb. But 
as is the case with the robins they build in unusual places as well. The ordinary 
place to find doves’ nests on this ranch is on the flat top of a vineyard post, where 
the nest is nicely shaded and screened from view by the grape leaves. 
Two such nests were found in 1910, one of which is shown in the accompany- 
ing illustration (fig. 55), and two have been found this season, 1911. In all four 
cases the nests were well built for doves’ nests, and the young were reared. 
The second illustration (fig. 56) shows a dove’s nest on the ground. This nest 
was at the edge of an alfalfa field just above the perpendicular side of a narrow ravine, 
the parent doves alighting and leaving from the brink of the bank. Sage brush rub- 
bish had been scraped to this side of the field in clearing it, and in this half decom- 
posed trash the doves had made for a nest merely a slight depression, apparently 
having brought nothing in the way of material to the nesting site. This nest was 
discovered on June 15, 1910, when the young were apparently but two or three 
days old. They left the nest on June 23. 
It seems hardly probable that these birds, particularly the robins, which differ 
in other characters from their eastern relatives, should ever, even with the changed 
environment of irrigation, become as rigidly tree nesting as their eastern relatives. 
However, it will be interesting to observe how these desert robins and doves 
will adapt their nesting habits to the coming change of environment. 
NESTING NOTES ON THE DUCKS OF THE BARR LAKE REGION, 
COLORADO 
By ROBERT B. ROCKWELL 
PART II 
WITH TEN PHOTOS 
PINTAIL {Dajila acuta) 
T he effect of irrigation and land cultivation upon the distribution of bird life, 
was clearly illustrated by our field work among the Pintails. Cooke’s “Birds 
of Colorado” published in 1897 classified the Pintail as a “rare summer 
resident’’ , with the qualifying statement that it usually bred from the northern 
states northward. This statement was no doubt largely correct, when it was pub- 
lished, but ten years’ time, with the accompanying development of large reservoir and 
canal systems, and the cultivating of thousands of acres of fertile land, has wrought 
a decided change in this condition. Upon the beginning of our work* along the 
Barr Lakes in 1906, we found the Pintail very much in evidence throughout the 
spring and summer, and their nests were found in greater numbers than those of 
any other species of duck except the Blue-winged Teal. 
It was a difficult matter to reconcile ourselves to the fact that the extremely 
shy, wild and racy birds that eluded our carefully placed and concealed blinds, and 
The notes upon which this paper is based were taken in company with Mr. L. J. Hersey. 
