2?0 TH? CONDOR Vol. XVI "White Squawk" of Mr. Knudson's boyhood days, which he himself shot in our presence and gave us for identification in 1904, and which specimen we still possess--these are facts. Then, too, the immensity of undisturbed marsh, affording the best of both feeding and breeding grounds, together with the mild climate of the winters in ttiis Great Basin, where the temperature rarely drops to zero, may offer a justification for its residence here. The birds have increased since our first observations, for annually they are spreading out into new colonies. How much real increase this may mean, we are unable to estimate; for Mr. Knudson tells us that in years past the birds returning each spring fluctuated in number-- one spring would find a large colony returned, the following spring only a few pair would occupy the rookery. ts this to be laid at the door of the plume- hunter or did a portion of the birds choose another locality for that year ? But the very marked increase since 1904 would indicate that the protection afforded the Snowy Heron here and elsewhere, is having its effect. At our last Legis- lature a law was passed protecting all bird life in the State, except the Mag- pie; and the law has not lacked enforcement. Mr. Fred Chambers, State Game Commissioner, with his deputies, and Mr. James Knudson, State and Federal Deputy Warden, have exerted untiring vigilance for the protection of all wild life in Utah. Salt Lake City, Septembcr zo, x9x4. THE EFFECTS OF IR]?IGATiON ON BIRD LIFE IN THE YAKIMA VALLEY, WASHINGTON By CLARENCE HAMILTON KENNEDY HE FOLLOWING article is from observations made while ranching in the Yakima Valley, Washington, during the years from 1909 to 1914. My ranch was an irrigated forty acres, less than ten acres of which was in vineyard and orchard, the remainder being in alfalfa and plow land. The esti- mates of the number of resident birds in the Yakima Valley are largely based on the numbers which have nested on my forty acres or on land adjoining, which area, though small, was under close and continuous observation for four years. Estimates are not as difficult on an irrigated tract as might seem to an easterner used to the great variety of conditions in a given territory, as on any new irrigation project the conditions are remarkably uniform throughout. These notes deal only with species resident during nesting time and apply to that part of the valley about thirty miles long and ten miles wide at its widest, which lies between Union Gap and Grandview. Before irrigation, this' part of the valley, excepting the narrow strip of verdure along the Yakima River, was a sage brush waste, dotted with sand' dunes, and except for an ephemeral spring vegetation following the five to ten inches of winter rain- fall, was a true desert. As its bird population, with the exception of th? grouses, now nearly ex- tinct, probably did not differ from that of the sage regions of the valley today, the following list of species resident at the present time in the sage gives us a view of the former bird life in that portion now irrigated.
