amazement and found that the duck's cry, so true to nature, was coming from 

 between the lips of my companion. He was calling the blue-bills. The birds 

 heard that counterfeit call, and deceived completely, circled and swept by within 

 a few yards of our boat. Wary as the birds are, when once fooled they are 

 fooled utterly, and too often to their sorrow in the shooting season. 



On a mud bank beyond the reach of water where the blue-bills had been 

 ])addling we saw some birds flying and moving about on the ground by turns. 

 We succeeded in getting close enough to say good morning to them all. They 

 were plover, known by the somewiiat inelegant name of lesser yellow-legs. These 

 birds, much sought after by s])ortsmen, seemed like the blue-bills to know that the 

 shooting season was over, and that on this game preserve at least no one was to 

 harm them. Near the yellow-legs we found solitary, spotted, and red-backed 

 sand-pipers, and the ring-necked plover. The birds were all as tame as chickens. 

 We went ashore at a place where there seemed to be some certainty of a firm 

 foundation for our footsteps and started on a hunt for marsh-wrens. \\'e found 

 none, but we flushed a few jacksnipe and took it for granted from the fact of 

 their late tarrying that they were to nest in the English Lake country. 



The snipe, the plover, the sandpipers, in fact all the shore birds and the 

 deep-water birds with them, form one of the most interesting groups for the 

 purposes of study. The birds are too little known to the student who is not 

 likewise a sportsman. Most of them are with us only during the shooting season, 

 when approach is difficult. Then again, the very nature of their haunts presents 

 an obstacle to familiar knowledge. It is hard work to scrape acquaintance with 

 them. Their friendship, if it is to be won, must l)e had at tlie expense of much 

 mud, some wailing and not a few duckings. 



Tree Swallow {Indoprocne bicolor) 



Length, about 6 inches. The steel blue U|)per parts and pure white under 

 parts are distinguishing characteristics. 



Range : Breeds from northwestern Alaska and northern Canada south to 

 southern California, Colorado. Kansas. Missouri and \'irginia ; winters in central 

 California, southern Texas and Gulf states and south to Guatemala. 



Tn its primitive state the tree swallow used to nest in hollow trees, and in 

 some parts of the country it still continues to do so. Early in the settlement of 

 the country it saw the advantage of putting itself under man's jirotection, and 

 now no bird is quicker to respond to an invitation to nest in a box dedicated to 

 its use. The bird lover within the range of the species may secure an interesting 

 tenant or two by the expenditure of a little trouble and labor, since the bird is not 

 a bit fastidious as to its domicile, providing it is weather tight. Tree swallows 

 arrive from the south earl\- in .\pril and soon begin to nest. In the fall they 

 gather in great flocks preparatory to their departure, and may then be seen by 



476 



