126 



THE OSPREY. 



island was a huge nest of the Canada Goose built up 

 of dried rushes — which must have been carried some 

 distance unless they floated to the island — and lined 

 profusely with down. The nest contained 7 eggs on 

 May 3. The treacherous quicksand bottom and the 

 difficulty in reaching this island through ice-cold 



YoU.Nl. :>HuK 1 -tAKliiJ u\\ L, FKOM LIFE. 

 PHOTOGRAPH BY E. S. ROLFE. 



water, breast-deep for 150 yards, made it seem im- 

 practicable to attempt to transport the camera. 



Our camp on May 5 was at a fine spring flowing 

 into a good-sized lake with wooded shores. Here we 

 varied our camp fare with the juicy meat from a year- 

 ling Lesser Snow Goose resting at the lake on his way 

 to the far north with many thousands of his kind ; 

 their clatter as they rose from the lake in a great 

 white cloud being like the noise of an approaching 

 storm. In the timber here we observed the Western 

 Great Horned Owl and American Long-eared Owl 

 nesting. 



A coulee flowing out of this lake and spreading out 

 here and there sufficiently to give opportunity for a 

 thick growth of reeds, rushes and marsh grass seemed 

 to afford suitable nesting sites for the Sandhill Crane. 

 Three lone Cranes on the lookout were sighted at in- 

 tervals in a distance of five miles along this coulee — 

 an almost certain sign of setting birds ; but none were 

 found. 



Last year, in a situation almost identical and but a 

 couple of miles away, I was piloted by a cowboy to 

 the nest of this species, referred to by me in ' Nidolo- 

 gist,' Vol. 3, page 145. Twice, on different days 

 about the middle of May, I surprised a lone Sandhill 

 Crane feeding among a range of uninhabited stony 

 hills interspersed with small sloughs and ponds. I 

 felt quite sure that his mate was quietly incubating 

 her big eggs in some one of these grassy ponds, and I 



do not hesitate to say that in a space not over half a 

 mile square on these two days I traveled at least 

 twenty miles in a vain search for that nest. Every 

 slough, pond and 'pot hole,' except the right one, I 

 explored thoroughly ; and the tracks of my horse after- 

 wards indicated that I must have passed repeatedly 

 within twenty feet of the nest without disturbing the 

 sitter or detecting her as she crouched in plain sight 

 — a hay-colored mass upon a small tumble of hay col- 

 lected in the center of a grassy pond so small and 

 shallow that I suppose I did not give it a thought. On 

 May 26 a wolf hunter of my acquaintance mistook this 

 gray mass for a wolf or fox and was about to fire 

 when it surprised him by assuming an unwonted ap- 

 pearance and taking wing. 



On May 5 we came upon a nest of the Mallard on 

 an open prairie at least half a mile from water and 

 forty miles from 'civilization,' yet the lining, in addi- 

 tion to a mass of down, showed scraps of newspaper 

 and some sheep's wool. This may be considered an 

 early date here for even the Mallard. Ordinarily the 

 Pintail is ahead in point of time, though both species 

 are generally betimes in their nesting, and if fresh 

 eggs are noted later than May 20 it is probably a case 

 of second nesting or one accidentally belated. The 

 nesting of the Pintail differs little generally from other 

 Ducks that select high, dry spots among the prairie 



YOUNG GULL, FROM LIFE. 

 PHOTOGRAPH BY E. S. ROLFE. 



Young Gulls are difficult to determine even from actual 

 specimens ; this one resembles a young American Herring 

 Gull as nearly as any other species. 



grass, badger brush or old stubble ; but a young far- 

 mer this year piloted me to a clump of thick, green 

 bulrushes covering a space as large as a dining table 

 in the midst of a springy bog, and in the center of 

 this, built up six inches out of water (eighteen inches 

 deep) on a foundation of coarse dried rushes, exactly 

 after the manner of the Redhead, Canvas-back, or 



