382 



THE OOLOGIST 



many directly over the little town and 

 some directly over the Court House, 

 almost within gunshot. 



Long strings of gabbling Mallards 

 flying in irregular bodies, and huge 

 flocks of Pintails orderly and high up, 

 great troups of Scaups crescent shap- 

 ed, in bunches each seemingly trying 

 to lead the flock. Occasionally a gang 

 of Redheads or Buffleheads hurried by 

 in the gray snowy day. Some Spoon- 

 bills passed, but were far outEtrippeJ 

 by bunches of little Green-winged Teal 

 that flashed by seemingly on the very 

 wings of the wind. One small flock 

 of White-winged Scoters passed as 

 though they had urgent business fur- 

 ther South. Aside from the Pintails, 

 most of the ducks flew low, as I sup- 

 posed, because of the fury of the wind; 

 but not so with that king of water- 

 fowl, Bronta Canadensis. Two long 

 lines of these birds away up, passed 

 over, breasting the storm at a rate 

 of not less than a mile a minute. As 

 far as the eye could see those noble 

 ganders led their companies in order- 

 ly fashion with regular wing beats, 

 defying Boreas in a way to enthuse 

 the lower of true nature. One troup 

 of Blue Geese followed the rest, and 

 several of the White-fronted, the form- 

 er silent as usual, and the latter more 

 noisy than usual, if possible, for each 

 seemed to be expressing his or her 

 individual disgust with the weather as 

 they passed. 



Four Wilson Snipe passed within a 

 half a hundred yards of the window I 

 gazed out of, and several Marsh, one 

 Pigeon, a number of American Rough- 

 leg and Swainson's Hawks drifted 

 southerly in more leisurely fashion 

 than the ducks. 



There was scarcely any time during 

 the entire day that a glance out of 

 the windows would not disclose a flock 

 of Ducks moving South. At the height 

 of the storm a flock of a dozen or more 



Prairie Chickens passed, alternately 

 whirring their wings and sailing, as 

 is the flight habit of this species, to 

 the Southeast. The general cause of 

 all the birds flying Southeast was 

 that the wind blew from the North- 

 west. 



Such migrations as this the writer 

 has witnessed in days gone by on a 

 sudden turn of the weather at home. 

 Xow we have none such. Those mil- 

 lions of wildfowl are gone. Those I 

 looked at out of the Court House win- 

 dows are going. They will not last 

 long. Almost every able-bodied man 

 in the town who coudl carry a gun 

 and could get away was cut doing his 

 level best to slay as many of these 

 poor birds that were fleeing from the 

 storm king for their lives, as possible. 

 And I assume the same was true of 

 every other town in that part of the 

 country. 



In the little hotel in that town is 

 hung the picture of five brutes taken 

 with their five guns, surrounded with 

 some hundreds of poor dead ducks 

 with the statement that it occurred 

 November 10, 1911. This shows the 

 state of public sentiment there and 

 those poor birds that fled that day be- 

 fore the wind and the cold and the 

 snow, will not last long unless some- 

 thing is done to save them. R.M.B. 



A Careless Cowbird. 



A certain female Cowbird which 

 spent the spring and summer in this 

 locality was addicted to very peculiar 

 habits; in fact, her eccentricities car- 

 ried her so far as to utterly disre- 

 gard one of the most fundamental 

 ruels of conventional Cowbird behav- 

 ior. 



This particular Cowbird arrived 

 from the South sometime late in 

 April, — at least she was on the place 

 with her polygamist mate and at least 

 one of his other wives when I arrived 



