186 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 robin? they build in unusual places as well. The ordinary place to find doges' 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 theyoung 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 TH]? BARR LAKE REGION, COLORADO By ROBERT B. ROCKWELL PART II WITH TEN PHOTOS PINTAIL (Dajfla acura) 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 inthis 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 sulnmer, 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 c6ncealed blinds, and
- The notes upon which this paper is based were taken in company with Mr. L. J. Hersey.
