346 BIRD-LIFE IN WESTERN CANADA 



About the borders of the colony, the parent birds led 

 their young into the lake to bathe ; both young and old 

 ducking their heads into the water repeatedly, buoyantly, 

 with evident joy in the performance. 



June 19, we launched a small patchwork box — it could 

 scarcely be called a boat — at the ford on Bear Creek and 

 floated down to Crane Lake. This was a thoroughly enjoy- 

 able experience. The creek averages not more than twenty 

 feet in width but is deep and the current bore us swiftly. 

 Rose-bushes, or an occasional willow which invariably held 

 the nest of a Rough-leg or Swainson's Hawk, appeared now 

 and then on the banks, but for the greater part they were as 

 bare as the Plains themselves. Ducks jumped, at nearly 

 every turn in the creek, and there were Sharp-tailed Grouse 

 in the rose-bushes, but it was not until we entered the 

 marshes and tules at the mouth of the creek, that we reached 

 the center of abundance of the bird-life of the region. Here 

 were snowy banks of White Pelicans and the elusive West- 

 ern and Eared Grebes, the former uttering their characteris- 

 tic grating whistle, while to the latter we attributed a loud 

 koiv-koiving , singularly like that of the Pied-billed Grebe. 

 Franklin's Gulls passed us on bounding, billowy flight or 

 paused to circle curiously, and there were a few nervous 

 Black Terns. But Ducks and Geese were the dominant spe- 

 cies. The Geese, alert but dignified, watched us with necks 

 upstretched and were quickly convinced of our undesirabil- 

 ity. The Ducks took to the air when only their own safety 

 was concerned, but where a family was involved, they flutter- 

 ed painfully about, now before, now behind, and the less at- 

 tention we paid to them the more they paid to us. The 

 quaint, bobbing, gay little Ruddy Ducks, with their rich, 

 brown plumage, bright blue bills, and tails cocked forward, 

 took wing only when closely pressed and then sped away in 

 bumblebee-like flight into the lake. 



Their courtship is evidently conducted on the water, but 

 the Gadwall pursues his mate in the air, going at full speed 



