Jan., 191,3 
NOTES ON SOME FRESNO COUNTY BIRDS 
17 
Lophortyx calif ornica vallicola. Valley Quail. 
The quail began nesting early this year (1912) but for some reason not a 
single brood of young was seen until the fifteenth day of July, when a mother 
quail was observed making frantic efforts to lead an inquisitive ornithologist 
away from her tiny chicks, out of the nest but a few hours. From that date 
all through the following month, broods of various sizes were noted daily, and 
as late as the first week in September many of the young birds seen were not 
over half grown. There is no reason to doubt that these were all the result of 
second sets of eggs, but I am at a loss to account for the entire absence of young 
quail during May and June. 
That many sets of eggs were deposited during April and May was evidenced 
by the finding of several nests. On April 20 a nest was seen in a vineyard, built 
in a clump of pepper grass two feet from the base of a vine. There were eight- 
teen eggs in which incubation was probably at least begun. It was a most un- 
fortunate choice of location, and it is extremely unlikely that the nest survived 
the cross plowing of the vineyard, which probably took place soon afterward. 
Another nest, accidentally discovered on May 12, and also holding eighteen 
eggs, was several inches under water. The nest was built in a tussock of wire 
grass just at the edge of a canal, and a sudden rise of water had completely in- 
undated it. The eggs when found had been soaking for some time, as they 
were entirely unmarked on the upper side, only that portion of the shell that 
rested on the nest bottom showing traces of the coloring pigment. As it is 
rather a difficult task to remove the coloring from a heavily incubated quail's 
egg I have assumed that this set was fresh, or nearly so, at the time it was 
abandoned. Again, on May 16, a nest with ten fresh eggs was exposed when a 
young man hoeing weeds in a vineyard uprooted a thick cluster of green fox- 
tail grass. 
While the foregoing records might seem to offer a solution to the question 
of why the first broods of quail failed to appear, yet it is not reasonable to con- 
clude that a similar disaster overtook all of the early nests, as the percentage of 
losses from unfortunate selection of nesting sites was probably no greater than 
in former years. Fortunately our quail are wonderfully prolific, and the number 
of birds found in the vineyards when the shooting season opened was not notice- 
ably less than in past seasons. 
Asio wilsonianus. Long-eared Owl. 
Probably on account of the absence of timber in the vicinity of Fresno, this 
species is seldom seen. The San Joaquin River bottom affords concealment and 
hunting grounds for a few individuals ; but in twelve years residence in this 
county I had never found a nest of the Long-eared Owl until April 30 of this 
year. On that date I was making my way along an old slough which, on account 
of the slight rainfall of the previous winter, was carrying no water. In former 
years I had encountered there many patches of rank-growing nettles, which 
afforded ideal nesting sites for numerous colonies of Tri-colored Blackbirds. 
Several clumps of willow bushes, with a few larger trees, were scattered along 
the banks, and on this particular occasion I had hopes of finding a pair of Swain- 
son Hawks nesting in one of the larger willows. 
With a bird crank’s curiosity I was peering into all the more dense por- 
tions of the screen of foliage, when I noticed a suspicious-looking bunch of 
feathers sitting upright on a dead branch not far away. A second glance showed 
that I had found a Long-eared Owl. I was convinced that its nest was near 
