September, 1922.] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



115 



Conditions during the past winter were quite 

 diflferent. There was an invasion of coots and when 

 the cold weather came in February, a steady cold 

 that lasted without interruption for six weeks, 

 these birds, contrary to their usual custom, did 

 not move south. "Mud-hens" were reported in 

 large numbers from Kelowna, Summerland and 

 Penticton on Okanagan Lake, from Kalamalka 

 Lake, four miles to the east and from Shuswap 

 Lake, fifty miles north. At Okanagan Landing 

 they were so abundant as to consume practically all 

 the available duck feed; the long stems of Potamo- 

 geton perfoliatus were stripped of all their leaves 

 with the regrettable consequence that the usual 

 large bands of Redhead did not winter. With the 

 cold weather, ice formed for some distance out 

 from the shore, covering much of the already partly 

 exhausted feeding ground. The coots were in a 

 sad plight. Large numbers gathered along the icy 

 shore by the village where they were fed scraps by 

 the children. These birds became very tame and 

 would come to be fed when called. Indeed, one 

 small girl was so regular with her largess that the 

 bolder birds would scramble into her lap for morsels 

 of food. Sometimes birds froze to the ice during 

 the night in front of the houses of their benefactors 

 and these had to be thawed out with hot water the 

 following morning. The birds that were fed 

 apparently depended entirely on charity for their 

 sustenance and suffered more than those which had 

 not been pauperized. These led a relatively happy 

 existence diving in thirty feet of water for a scant 

 supply of food. When the weather moderated and 

 the ice melted along shore it was expected that the 

 coots would revert to their normal suspicious 

 attitude towards all things human. However, 

 this was not the case. They continued coming for 

 scraps and many spent the entire day walking 

 along the beach or paddling about in the shallow 

 water close to shore. Several small jetties beside 

 the houses on the lake-shore always held their 

 quota of coots, resting placidly in the sun during 

 the intervals of preening. One band accompanied 

 by several scaups was always to be found close to 

 the Canadian Pacific WTiarf, and when the boat 

 arrived, usually at eleven a.m., they gathered along- 

 side to wait for scraps and when the deckhands 

 threw out the remains of their limch the ensuing 

 scramble was a source of endless amusement to 

 the onlookers. Coots walked along the railroad 

 track beside the boat landing in perfect indifference 



to the crowd of passengers transferring from the 

 boat to the train, and on several occasions it was 

 necessary to drive them out of the waiting-room. 

 Many birds walked some distance from the water 

 across the frozen meadows at the north end of the 

 lake and others explored the sage brush benches on 

 the west shore. These were "-wild" birds and their 

 overland journeys were an indication of the food 

 shortage in the lake. 



When Kalamalka Lake froze over in February an 

 excited resident telephoned the Chief of Police that 

 thousands of Mud-hens were dying and "What was 

 he going to do about it?" The wretched birds 

 moped on the ice or floundered about in the deep 

 snow when the last piece of open water closed up 

 and a great many perished. Those that were not 

 too weak or too coated with ice to fly left the 

 frozen lake in the night. A number of these were 

 seen in Vernon about ten p.m., where, bewildered 

 by the lights, several flew against shop windows and 

 one bird ended its career in a public garage. 



Conditions at Shuswap Lake were much the same 

 although posssiby the casualties were higher. 

 While waiting for a south-bound train at Sicamous 

 Junction on February 24th I walked along the rail- 

 road track with the Provincial Police Constable to 

 see the Coots. There was a small area of open 

 water some distance from the beach where a few 

 birds were feeding, but the majority were gathered 

 about the boathouses on the beach or standing in 

 the snow. These had been fed regularly and ap- 

 parently made no attempt to shift for themselves. 

 When the constable called "Coot, Coot, Coot," they 

 came flying towards him, their great clumsy feet 

 dragging in the snow. A month after I was again 

 in Sicamous and the constable informed me that 

 few Coots had survived. A number of Mallard and 

 Scaup also died during the winter in spite of regular 

 feeding by the Sicamous residents. I was told by 

 a resident that three Mallard frequented his back 

 yard where he was in the habit of feeding them, and 

 after a short time, tamed by cold and hunger, they 

 entered his kitchen fearlessly when allowed to do so. 

 It was estimated by several that five hundred Coots 

 and two hundred ducks, chiefly Mallard and Scaup, 

 had succumbed to the combined effects of cold and 

 starvation during the month of February. It is 

 difficult to understand why these birds did not 

 migrate at the first indication of zero weather, when 

 a flight of fifty miles would have brought them to 

 open water and comparative safety. 



