File:The game birds of California (1918) (14568640479).jpg

Identifier: cu31924022524106 (find matches)
Title: The game birds of California
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Grinnell, Joseph, 1877-1939 Bryant, H. C. (Harold Child), 1886-1968 Storer, Tracy I. (Tracy Irwin), 1889-1973
Subjects: Game and game-birds
Publisher: Berkeley : University of California Press
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ning a slight depression in which the eggs rest. Tyler(1913&, p. 25) describes the nests in the Fresno district as follows: The typical nest is little more than a shallow depression in the earth withno lining whatever under the eggs but with quite a substantial rim aroundthem so that it may be said to resemble a large, loosely built, and muchflattened blackbirds nest with the bottom removed. One is given the impres-sion that this nest might have been hastily woven together, carried for somedistance and set down over the four large pointed eggs with the idea offencing them in rather than of affording a comfortable nest for the young. An exceptional condition of affairs was observed by Lamb andHowell (1913, p. 117) at Buena Vista Lake, Kern County, whereAvocets and Stilts were nesting on common ground. Nests of theAvocets were noted containing from five to eight eggs, probably theresult of two or more females laying in the same nest; indeed, somenests contained eggs of both species.
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o 3 AVOCET 343 The eggs of the Avocet are usually four in number, sometimes butthree, and are pear-shaped. They measure in inches 1.82 to 1.97 by1.34 to 1.40, and average 1.93 by 1.37. The ground-color is a dull buffor clay with superficial markings of reddish brown, brownish blackor black, and deeper markings of lavender or gray. The superficialmarkings are more numerous than the deeper ones, are rather evenlydistributed over the surface, and rarely exceed 0.08 inches in diameter.The eggs of the Avocet differ from those of the Black-necked Stilt inlarger transverse diameter, slightly greater length, slightly dullersurface, and smaller and less numerous spots. The little chicks take readily to the water and are as much athome as ducklings, swimming and diving if occasion require (San-ford, Bishop and Van Dyke, 1903, p. 333). A downy youngster sev-eral days old observed by H. C. Bryant (1914e, p. 226) at Gadwall,May 21, 1914, was swimming in a shallow pond and turning tail upas it trie

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