May, 1909 
SOME NOTES FROM FRESNO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 
S3 
ludovicianus gambeli) completed a nest in a large, ragged, old willow, and from 
this nest I took a set of five eggs on April 8; incubation begun, as was proven by 
the fact that the set had been left for two or three days and had not increast in 
number. 
By April 23 these birds had six more slightly incubated eggs in a nest not over 
sixty feet from the first one. It might seem that after collecting this set the birds 
should not have been molested again; but nevertheless a close watch was kept on 
them, and the 12th of May is the date on which their third nest was found to con- 
tain the largest set of shrike eggs the writer has ever seen, and this set which num- 
bered eight was added to my collection. The experiment was becoming interesting, 
and as the sets were growing larger I seemed in a fair way to get a record breaker 
if the birds did not become discouraged and give up nest building for the season. 
This, however, they seemingly had no intention of doing and moved back to the 
same tree in which their first nest was built. This fourth nest was apparently just 
as carefully made as any of the earlier ones and yielded seven eggs to my cabinet 
on May 31. Seeing that the charm was broken, and feeling somewhat ashamed of 
my record, I resolved not to molest them again when they, with a perseverance 
that deserved its reward, began the work of constructing a fifth nest. It has 
always been a source of regret that circumstances did not permit a visit to this last 
nest until a day or two after the young had left it, so the number of young they 
finally succeeded in raising was not ascertained. 
Now should any one accuse me of egg-hoggishness I am willing to plead 
guilty to the charge, but can add that the experiment has never been repeated, 
even upon a bird that is considered so great a rascal that it is one of the few species 
to which our State affords no protection. 
The last day in February, 1902, it was my good fortune to see a part albino 
male Brewer Blackbird ( Euphagus cyanocephalus) . The bird was feeding with a 
large flock on some plowed ground and I had a good view of it at no great distance. 
The greater part of each wing was white and the bird was quite as conspicuous 
among his dark fellows as is the occasional Yellow-head that is sometimes seen in 
these winter flocks of blackbirds. 
The only breeding colony of this species that I have been able to discover was 
at Shaver Lake, in the Sierras, at an elevation of about 5300 feet. During the 
latter part of May, 1908, about twenty nests were found, and there were no doubt 
more. They were all built in the old dead pine stubs standing in the lake. Some 
were placed in deserted Flicker excavations, others behind loose bark or on the 
ragged, broken-off tops of the stubs, while a few were built against the body of 
the stub and supported by one or two horizontal branches. The only nest that was 
examined was found on May 27, and was built in an old excavation about three 
feet above the surface of the water. The bird flew from the hole, and the nest, 
which was scarcely more than a circle of dry grass stems lined with rootlets, con- 
tained four heavily incubated eggs. The cavity was sq shallow that the head of 
the bird that occupied it was about on a level with the lower part of the entrance. 
The region about Shaver proved to be a most interesting one to me on account 
of the presence of several birds that one would hardly expect to find. One 
afternoon, while endeavoring to explore a willow-grown swampy area at the head 
of the lake, I came upon a small colony of Bi-colored Blackbirds ( Agelaius gub- 
ernator calif ornicus ) all in very bright plumage. One male especially was unusu- 
ally handsome and seemed anxious to display his colors to the best advantage, 
frequently making short flights into the air only to return to the place from which 
he started. While balancing on a partly-submerged log listening to the blackbirds 
