THE OOLUGIST. 



MA 



head whistled and on being ausw'ered 

 by the others it joined them on the 

 mud. These were by far ihe tamest 

 and most unsuspecting of all the birds 

 seen about the two lakes. August 2'Jth 

 saw a lioek out on the Hats. September 

 4th there was only one to be seen. 



Totaniis soUlariua. Solitary Sand- 

 piper. Quite plentiful at Itoth lakes. 

 From twenty to thirty could ije seen at 

 almost any time. 



Bdrtramia longicdiula. Bartramiau 

 Sandpiper. — Although these vvei'e not 

 seen with the other birds on the tiats, 

 I meulioa them as they could alwaj'S 

 be seen sparingly' in the pasture fields 

 about Loch Kaven. 



Actilcs mazularia. Spotted Sand- 

 piper. — These birds were very scarce 

 about the lakes: they were more plen- 

 tiful along the banks of the streams. 



Aegialitcs vocifera. Killdeer. — Very 

 plentiful about both lakes, but especial- 

 ly Lake Roland. wJiere there was a 

 nuu-h larger range of mud flats. On 

 August IJJth while sitting on the 

 bank, I coimted fifty-two in sight at 

 one time on a piece of mud about three 

 acres in extent. 



AegialUis semipalinnLa. Semipal- 

 mated Plover.— August 2Uth I saw 

 about a dozen of these little "King- 

 necks"' feeiling on the flats with the 

 other binls. 



Pandion lialitTtus carolincnsis. Amer- 

 ican Osprey.— On several occasions I 

 saw a pair about I..och Kaven. 



t'eri/lc akyon. Belted Kiiiglisiier.— A 

 few seen about both lakes. 



W>r. H. FisHKK. 

 Baltimore, Md. 



The Game Bird of the Prairie- 



■11,. : ■ : uf thi.s .- 

 aie lu :• nitain cxiciil a cuuiiccLiiig 

 link bi! \M(.ii iliMXM.i ihe east and those 

 i.fi;. \treme west. In many instan- 



UC-j vVc lind bolh illc ■M-li'l-ll :mil flir 



western vaii 



this central section lias a few birds pe- 

 culiar to iis^elf. Prominent among these 

 is the Prairie Hen. 



'In this article I shall not useseientilic 

 terms but shall conlinemy.self to hoinrly 

 expressions and comparisons, I think I 

 can give a better general idea of my sub- 

 ject in this way than any other. No 

 doubt a large number of the readers of 

 the " OoLO(iisT " are scientists anil per- 

 fectly familiar with Latin terms and 

 technical phrases. Yet it is reasonable 

 to suppose that many of the readers are 

 more familiar with our birds themselves 

 then with ornithologj' as a science. 

 Have you ever heard tiiat peculiar 

 sound called the " booming " of Prairie 

 Chickens; probably not. In order to 

 hear it you must be in the country and 

 get up before sunrise some morning 

 about the first of May, this is the ma- 

 ting season. The birds congregate in 

 flocks of forty or fifty birds each and 

 seek some grassy ridge somewhat apart 

 from man, to do their love making. 

 The long drawn booming sound is made 

 b^' th(; males. They have quite a i)el- 

 lows of loo.se skin on the neck which 

 they pufi" up, and tufts of feathers on 

 the back of the head or neck. They 

 erect these " horns," lower the wings 

 slightly si)read the tail and f^trut about 

 somewhat in the manner of a Turkey 

 Gobbler, — giving words to their love- 

 song, while the females kee[> time with 

 their kahar-lca-kii-Lar-r-r. A friend 

 of mine, an old Englishman, once told 

 me that the males were e.ich trying to 

 say " r m-bi(jgcr-' n-n-nynu " and that 

 their wives were laiighlngat Ihoatlompt. 

 To sound like their booming, this ^('^7- 

 gcr-'ii->i-n-i/<ti/ must be read slowlv mimI 

 in a nasal tone, then it is a vcr 

 couutcrf(Mt. !'■ '■■'■ i"!"-... •' 

 oj)enIy, they ! 

 a time, before ynu 

 of them. What a 

 ^Ihe 



