AMONG THE WATER-FOWL 
LEE SUBMERGED: WE Ne 
(Grebes and Loons) 
» (HE seventh day of a recent June found 
i] me, with a companion, driving over 
the sun-baked, fire-scorched prairie of 
North Dakota, within a few miles of 
the international boundary. For miles 
no settler’s shack had been sighted to break the 
solitude. No pioneer had yet overturned the sod and 
sown his wheat, or erected the ugly barbed wire 
fence to compel travel “‘on section lines.”’ Not 
even a wagon-trail offered its suggestion of a better 
way. We were free to consult ihe compass, and lay 
our course, as though at sea, over the virgin prairie, 
that had remained just as the Buffalo had left it. 
Though the scenery was monotonous, there was a 
certain fascination in jogging along over this billowy 
grass in the crisp, stimulating air, eae the frequent 
glimpses of birds and animal life. Ducks Hew out 
from the little wet depressions. A covey of cock 
Pinnated Grouse whirred away from a weedy spot. 
Meadowlarks, Longspurs, Sparrows Ole eat 
Horned Larks were nearly always in sight, with 
Black ‘Terns flitting about. At any time we were 
liable to see a Coyote slinking off in the distance, 
a Badger dozing by its oles OW, COmstant ae |lack- 
Rabbit and see it speed away with ts leaps. 
Gophers scurried to their burrows, and disappeared 
with that comical little whisk of the tail that always 
forces me to an inward smile. 
I 
