In North- West Canada. 119 



CHAPTER XVI. 



FTER dinner I started out alone for a slough north 

 of Moosejaw. I ascended the ridge and was soon 

 among the lonely rolling prairies. Butialo birds 

 were numerous, going about in troops of several 

 dozen, and the next most common bird was McCown's 

 longspur. The song of this bird is very cheering, and 

 the male always sings as he descends to the ground with out- 

 stretched, motionless wings. I had not gone far before I flushed 

 a female from her nest and four eggs ; the nest, as usual, was 

 concealed under the shelter of a tuft of grass. This set is 

 remarkable in having all the marking at the larger end of the 

 egg where they form a zone. 



The next find was a set of four eggs of Bartram's sandpiper ; 

 the bird sat on her eggs until I was close upon her, when she 

 got up and ran along in front for a few yards. The nest was 

 like all others I have seen, a mere hollow in the ground lined 

 with a few blades of dry grass. Bartram's sandpipers are 

 exceedingly abundant on the prairies, and their eggs are often 

 gathered for food in the same manner as lapwing plovers eggs 

 are in England. 



On reaching the summit of a ridge of the prairie I beheld 

 the slough below me. Several kildeers soon discovered me 

 and gave the alarm with their plaintive cries. Thej^ came 

 flying towards me, and I soon had a number flying above my 

 head. They are a great nuisance, as they warn the other 

 birds, who slink away from their nests and hide among the 

 rushes. I saw a pair of yellowshanks, and while searching 

 for their nest I came across the nest of the curlew and four 

 eggs. The nest was some distance from the margin of the 

 slough, and consisted of a mere depression in the ground lined 

 with grass, like other plovers. The eggs are an olive-greenish 



