The Season 



359 



found to contain an immense number of 

 Coots or Mud-hens and a most unusual 

 abundance of Pintail Ducks. Due to 

 freshets in the summer killing the growth 

 of wild rice, the big sloughs are this fall 

 like open lakes, and, covering the surface 

 in almost unbroken ranks were thousands 

 of Coots and hundreds and hundreds of 

 'Sprigs.' It was an interesting sight to 

 watch the latter feeding. The water 

 being only a little over a foot in depth, 

 a good rear fourth of the bird projected 

 above the surface when it 'tipped up' 

 to feed from the bottom, and the sun, 

 shining on the pure white of the under- 

 pays, produced the effect of a glistening 

 white ball taking the place of the Duck. 

 When hundreds of them were thus 'tipped 

 up' at once all over the lake, it suggested, 

 as some one remarked, a widespread array 

 of white water-lilies. Pintails are always 

 here in fair numbers but never before in 

 the history of the Club has there been 

 such an invasion. Other kinds of Ducks 

 have thus far been rather scarce, and the 

 shooting, up to mid-October, has been 

 poor compared with last year when there 

 was a remarkable influx of Ducks of many 

 species, caused apparently by the great 

 drought farther west. Last year, between 

 September 15 and October 15, there were 

 killed at the Club's grounds 510 Ducks; 

 this year, during the same period, 272. 

 Very few northern Ducks have appeared, 

 caused, probably by, the warm weather. 

 There has been a considerable movement 

 of Ring-billed Gulls this fall and a rather 

 more than usual number of Lesser Yellow- 

 legs. — Thomas S. Roberts, Zoological 

 Museum, University of Minnesota, Min- 

 neapolis, Minn. 



Kansas City Regiox. — An interesting 

 event recorded during the present fall 

 migration has been the very early arrival 

 of Pelicans. Mr. William Andrews, who, 

 readers of this letter may possibly recall, 

 has his small home on a wooded and rocky 

 point overlooking a picturesque bend of 

 the Missouri River near Courtney, and 

 who furnishes constant and reliable notes 

 from that delectable region, advises that 



a flock of these large birds, numbering 

 between 150 and 200, appeared on Sep- 

 tember 1. This is quite ten days earlier 

 than any previously recorded date of 

 arrival. Mr. Andrews' notes for the month 

 of August are full of interesting and im- 

 portant matter, as, for instance, five Least 

 Terns, numbers of Great Blue Herons, and 

 swarms of Barn, Bank, and Cliff Swallows 

 during the first five days; a small flock of 

 Blue-winged Teal and several Pied-billed 

 Grebes on the 13th; a great wave of mixed 

 Sandpipers on the 21st; one immature 

 Little Blue Heron (a most unusual species 

 for this region) on the 2 2d; more and larger 

 flocks of Blue-wings with a few Shovellers 

 on the 30th and 31st; and on September 1 

 an immense wave of Kingbirds, several 

 species of Warblers, Baltimore Orioles, 

 Great Blue Herons (40 in sight at one 

 time), and a few Least Terns. 



The first three weeks of September were 

 marked by no unusual activity among the 

 migrants, save on the 7th, when Barn 

 Swallows came in from the north in 

 thousands, and on the 18th, when Pied- 

 billed Grebes were to be seen wherever 

 there was water enough to float one. The 

 first Pintails, a flock of ten, appeared on 

 the 21st, and a number of both immature 

 and adult Herring Gulls were seen on the 

 24th. The 28th witnessed the greatest 

 flight of the season, and may be accounted 

 for by the fact that there arrived the next 

 morning a cold wave accompanied by a 

 high wind from the northwest. Birds 

 noted ahead of this sudden and unfavorable 

 change in the weather included ver 

 seventy flocks of ducks (mostlyBlue- wings, 

 Shovellers, and Pintails, with a sprinkling 

 of Mallards), numbers of Yellow-legs, 

 Coots, Spotted Sandpipers, Herring and 

 Ring-billed Gulls, Turkey Vultures, Marsh 

 Hawks, Broad-wings, and hordes of Tree 

 Swallows. 



The usual crowds of the commoner 

 species were noted passing on time during 

 the ten days following the cold wave. On 

 October xo, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 

 Myrtle Warblers, Harris', White-throated, 

 and Savannah Sparrows were found in 

 numbers. On this date Dix Teachenor 



