128 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
known home life, the artificial umbrella-blind employed on many previous 
occasions for similar purposes was placed fifty feet up in a cypress tree 
and draped with “Spanish moss” (Tillandsia). From it photographs 
of the birds nesting in neighboring trees were eventually made. ‘The 
surroundings were of great beauty, and Mr. Horsfall’s carefully made 
studies will enable him to reproduce in his background the singular 
charm of a flooded cypress forest. 
RING-BILLED AND CALIFORNIA GULLS 
On June 5, accompanied by Mr. L. A. Fuertes, as artist, I left New 
York for Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, on the line of the Canadian Paci- 
fic railway. ‘This is a region of rolling plains dotted with lakes and ponds 
which, when the water is not too alkaline, support, in their shallower 
parts, a dense growth of rushes, the home of Grebes, Coots, Bitterns, 
Franklin’s Gulls and Ruddy, Red-headed and Canyasback Ducks. 
About the grassy borders of the lakes and sloughs, Mallards, Gadwalls, 
Pintails, Widgeon, Blue-winged ‘Teal and other ducks nest. ‘These 
