In North- West Canada. 29 



covered with short buffalo grass, and the county has a desolate, 

 barren look. The ground is undermined with gopher holes, 

 and the bones and skulls of buffalo are scattered in all direc- 

 tions over the prairie. The dark clouds that had been threat- 

 ening for some time now broke and it began to rain, so I de- 

 scended into the valley. As it was near twelve o'clock, I made, 

 my way to the station and found dinner ready, to which my 

 keen appetite did justice. 



After dirmer, as the rain abated somewhat, I put on my 

 waterproof coat and made my way to the ponds once more, 

 and this time tried the north side , here I found a raft and 

 was soon on it and paddling towards the islands where the 

 black terns were noisy. On arriving there I was surprised to 

 find no eggs, but it was evidently too early, for ten days after 

 that I found black terns just beginning to lay at Long Lake 

 in Manitoba. The islands were fringed with rushes, and I 

 found several nests of the red-winged starling containing four 

 and five eggs each : the nests were attached to several stems of 

 rushes, were cup-shaped and made of dry grasses. I also found 

 a nest of rusty grackle ready to receive eggs, it was made of 

 dry grass on the ground on one of the islands. Wilson's 

 Phalaropes were numerous, and I worked hard to find their nests 

 without success. Every willow bush growing out of the water 

 contained one or more nests of bronzed grackle or kingbird, 

 but it was too early, for eggs of the latter, as the kingbird is 

 a late breeder and seldom has eggs before the middle of June. 

 Jumping from the raft on to the island, I almost trod upon a 

 large bird which stumbled off and alighted in the water some 

 distance away ; it gave me a sudden start, as birds do when 

 they fly up right under one's feet. In a tuft of long grass was 

 a cosy nest of down and ten bufty eggs of the blue-winged 

 teal. They were securely packed along with the other nests and 

 eggs. In trying to jump from one island to another, I almost 

 stepped backwards on a nest of four handsome eggs of the 

 killdeer. I happened to see the eggs in looking behind me, 

 previous to making the jump. The nest of the killdeer is 

 simply a depression in the sand, lined with a few blades of 



