122 THE CONDOR I Vol. II Breedin!l of A!lelaius tricolor in Madera Co., Cal. BY JOS. ?IAILLIARD, SAN GERONIMO? CAL. [Read before the Northern Division of the Cooper Orn. Club, Sept. rS, I9OO. I HILE making a short stay at a laius trico/or, ?but also that the young ranch on the southern edge of were out of the shell, for a constant Merced Co.., Cal., during the stream of the birds, growing thicker latter part of April (?f this year, it was and thicker as the well was approached, my good fortune to discover a very in- could be seen flying along the line of teresting breeding colony of ?t?elaius the canal. This stream was composed /r/color. My first day's prespecting on of birds going toward the tules with this ranch developed the fact that large their bills full of bugs and of equal quantities of blackbirds were enjoying numbers returning to the fields for a feast upon the newly-irrigated alfalfa fresh supplies. fields near the ranch buildings, and From this line of flight individuals that four species were present. These were constantly branching off into the were, of course, ?(anlhocefihalus xantho- alfalfa until the stream thinned out to cefihalus, ?(elaius ?. cahfornicus, ?t.?e- nothing. Upon close approach the laius tricolor and Xcolecofiha.?us ?anc- tules proved to be a small patch about cefihah?s. The latter were breeding in thirty yards across, surrounded by a the trees about the ranch buildings and shallow pond of water and fenced in so the ?t,ffelaius ?. caltfornicus had their that cattle could not destroy them. The nests located in the sedge in lowspots pond was formed partly by the flow near the irrigating ditches, but the from an artesian Well some distance off other two species were evidently not and partly b.y seepage from the irrigat- breeding in the immediate vicinity. ' ing canal, the bank of the latter form- Being especially anxious to procure ing a dam across the stream from the some females of ?tge/az'us tricolor upon well. their actual breeding grohnd I made The wate?? wag knee-deep and ex- diligent inquiry among the vaqueros tremely cold 6n this particular morning. and ranch hands concerning this species, Upon the edge of the pond small flocks but no one knew or cared anything of 73'inca minedilia and 7: occidental/s, about birds. At last, however, one just taking on the breeding plumage, teamster remarked that he had seen were quietly feeding, some/?rimanlop?,?s qui?e a number of birds perching on mexz?anus and ]?ecurvirostra americana some tules around an artesian well, xvere wading in it, and a flock of thirty some three miles away, every time he or forty Charadrius squataro/a in varied had passed there lately. In conse- plumage were in the field close by, quence the next morning, April 28, while a couple of 7'ota?z2?s me/anoleucus saw me started bright and early for the greeted me with their peculiar cry. spot. The alfalfa fields extended the The tules were from six to te? feet whole way along the irrigating ditch high and very thick. Upon near ap- beside which my road lay. It was a proach the birds gattrated on the tips cold, raw, foggy morning, not at all cal- of the rules in vast numbers, whfie the culated to elevate one's spirits, and in air above was a mass of fluttering wings. consequence I had visions cf failure as The noise made by these birds when regarde,a the particular object in view. I was actually among them was almost But as far away cs the bunch of rules deafening..In a m(m?ent or two there could be discerned, probably nearly a were hundreds fluttering around my mile, it was evident not only that the head, each trying to make more noise spot xvas the breeding ground of ?4.?'e- tha?x the next (me, and yet every tule
