The Lure of the Godwit 97 



wherever a convenient corner projected. Without uttering 

 a note, they frequently exchanged perches, as if they were 

 engaged in a strigidine " pussy wants a corner " ; they were 

 silent as wraiths, but their big, bright eyes saw everj^thiug. 

 When I was able to be about and out-of-doors again, 

 I soon became too deeply engrossed in my work to give to 

 my bird-friends the attention they deserved, but my heart 

 will ever be grateful to them for the entertainment they 

 afforded me while time passed so slowl}'. 



THP] LURE OF THE GODWIT. 



He approached me whenever I visited the Yellow Rail 

 Coulee in the Choctaw Basin, Benson County, North Da- 

 kota. T'was difficult to determine the direction from 

 which this Marbled Godwit came. Before I could see, 

 away in the distance, his voice of suspicion would pierce 

 the horizon and over the ridge he skimmed with the wing 

 strokes similar to a Killdeer. 



I climbed through the slopes of badger brush where a 

 Prairie Sharp-tail Grouse had a setting of fifteen eggs, and 

 hunted up and down the uncultivated patches. This wary 

 Marlin stood in the grass close by and scrutinized my 

 actions. 



The Western Willet surveyed conditions from " on 

 wing " but never pausing to alight even though he mani- 

 fested considerable curiosity at my presence. 



In the Red River ^"alley of Minnesota there were quite 

 a few Godwits this spring. Heavy rains and " no shoot- 

 ing " contributed largely to the conditions which made the 

 environment attractive. Residents said the " Indian Moc- 

 casin State " was fast losing its virgin prairies, but I saw 

 thousands of acres undisturbed and without fences. After 

 visiting the headquarters of the Red River of the North and 

 the Mississippi and making an inventory of the bird life 

 now in evidence, I found Minnesota more promising than 

 North Dakota, for waders. Dakota is still par excellence 



