THE OSPEEY. 



83 



seeking to get back upon its egg's, which still 

 lay in the nest on the other side of us. Re- 

 peatedly it alighted on the ground near by and 

 edged toward the nest, getting within a few feet; 

 but as often its courage oozed away, and it would 

 take wing and flutter about just overhead, utter- 

 ing its inimitable little crj'. In the course of 

 half an hour, on rising from our lunch we 

 stepped toward the Plover and discovered that 

 she was bravely sitting upon her eggs! The 

 latter were neat, clay-colored objects dotted quite 

 uniformly with small black spots, and so nearly 

 like the small g'ravel stones among which they 

 lay that not one eye in a thousand would have 

 distinguished them. 



The nest was merely a slight depression sur- 

 rounded carefully, and even lined on the bottiun, 

 with bits of smooth gravel ranging in size from 

 number <) shot t<> buck shot. The experience of 

 witnessing a Wilson's Phalarope and a Belted 

 Piping" Plover both attempting simultaneously 

 to creep upon their nests, respectively 12 and 25 

 feet distant, may fairly be considered novel. 



This arm of Devil's Lake is a shallow alkaline 

 bay. Some 200 yards from the shore lies a low, 

 flat, 10-acre island — lately a mere sand bar — but 

 now supporting along its centre a sparse growth 

 of grass and weeds. I should hardly have vis- 

 ited this barren island as a likely spot, but for 

 the prospect of finding the Wiiite Pelican nest- 

 ings, large numbers of which I hid noted were 

 making this their regular resort. It proved 

 however, that they simply alighted to disgorge 

 and eat the fish taken in the lake, and I will not 

 say their dumping ground was a fragrant spot. 

 Many hundreds of the Common Tern were 

 breeding- here, their nests being scattered from 

 end to end of the island. I could not discover 

 , among them any representatives of Forster's or 

 the Arctic Tern. Four pairs of Avocets were 

 also nesting, and but for the presence of the 

 birds themselves one might have passed their 

 nests unheeded, since in situation, appearance, 

 and construction they were exact counterparts 

 of those of many of the Terns, and located in 

 tlie midst of a cluster of the latter. (And --by 

 the way — where does the Avocet nest "among 

 the tall grass." as described by Davie? Accord- 

 ing to my observation, Raines' crude picture of 

 Avocets and their nests is one of the truths 

 told in his Bird Nesting in N. W. Canada.) 

 Eight feet apart I noted nests containing re- 

 spectively d(jwny young of the Tern and Avo- 

 cet, in which about the only distinguishing 

 feature that readily caught the eye was the blue 

 legs and feet of the young Avocets in contrast 

 to the pink members of the Terns. A later 

 visit proved that the young of both species take 

 readily to the water and swim about freelj', not 

 only in the shallows but where there is consid- 

 erable depth. 



I could have repeatedU- photographed the 

 adult Aviicets in some of their striking postures 

 along shore, with one wing upraised and the 

 other trailing, while the long handsome neck 

 and head with its recurved bill were extended 

 horizontally, and the body was somewhat 

 crouched as the blue legs spun along the sand, 

 but never at any thing less than 50 or 60 feet 

 distant — too far for good results on a 4x5 plate. 

 Not even the Willet is a more noisy or demon- 



strative tattler or more fool-hardy than the Avo- 

 cet when its nesting ground is encroached upon, 

 and it would have been a simple thing to shoot 

 every member of the little coli>ny. 



On June 19 on this island, in the midst of a 

 strip of grass and weeds not exceeding 200 feet 

 by 100 feet, was a perfect pocket of nesting Bald- 

 pates, Gadwalls and Shovelers. The eggs of 

 the last two seemed to be well along in incuba- 

 tion or on the point of hatching, while all the 

 sets of Baldpate's were still incomplete. And I 

 believe that, in general, the last named rarel.v 

 nests before June 20, and it is quite common to 

 find eggs perfectly fresh after July 1. On July 

 5. an interesting sight here was a nest of eggs 

 of the Gadwall in the act (so to speak) of hatch- 

 ing. Five down3' young, apparently a daj' or 

 more out of the shell, were scrambling over and 

 under and around two young'sters still bedrag- 

 gled with the contents of the shells from which 

 they had just emerged. Two more partially un- 

 derneath had their slimy heads and necks pro- 

 truding at full length from holes in their respec- 

 tive eggs, and each was straining every nerve 

 to burst its shell apart; while two eggs in the 

 bottom of the nest were merely pipped. All this 

 in a very well built nest, lavishly supplied with 

 down. It must be confessed that the picture ob- 

 tained of this fine subject is extremely vague; 

 but the result of an effort by an amateur photo- 

 grapher is about as uncertain as the verdict of a 

 petit jur> — of which it has been said that even 

 Divine Providence cannot foresee it. 



I succeeded this year in adding the Green- 

 winged Teal to my list of birds breeding here. 

 Twice before, in the past dozen years, I liad ob- 

 served a single pair here in the breeding season, 

 but it was not until this year that I discovered a 

 nest containing eggs. Shortly afterward I noted 

 a female swimming in a flooded meadow and 

 making frantic efforts to divert my attention 

 from her pretty little progeny that paddled away 

 for dear life and quickly disappeared among the 

 grass growing ont of the water. Dr. McChes- 

 ney, in his Report on the Birds of Dakota, gives 

 this species only as a migrant; and Cones, in 

 his Birds of the Northwest, states that he failed 

 to find it breeding here, althoug-h he considered 

 it possible that it does so. 



On the same day I was treated to an exhibition 

 of touching solicitude on the part of the Bar- 

 tramian Sandpiper for her young. While driv- 

 ing across a piece of prairie I noted a pair of 

 these birds making the usual signs that denoted 

 a young family in the vicinity. Out of mere 

 curiosity I alig^hted and soon spied four young- 

 sters straggling about in the long grass in their 

 efforts to get away. Picking one of the little 

 fellows up in my hand it commenced to peep 

 vig-orously; when one of the parent birds that 

 had been flying about nervously fluttered down 

 at my very feet and within reach of my out- 

 stretched hand in a .spasni of anxiety, exhibit- 

 ing every sign of being in extremis. Of cour.se 

 it adroitly avoided my efforts to actually seize 

 it, though I would gladl)- have taken home the 

 young if I could have also secured one of the 

 parent birds to brood and care for the little ones 

 while in captivity. Failing in this I finally re- 

 leased the voung bird, to the verv evident relief 

 of both. 



