AMONG THE WaTER FowL 
marsh, the heated, undrinkable alkaline water which 
imparted no relief in cooling brow or moistening 
parched tongue, nor the long dark prairie drive, 
protracted beyond the midnight hour, dispelled that 
enthusiasm. 
Just out from 
the town was a 
little slough of a 
few acres, with 
the usual border 
and clumps of 
rushes, where 
Ducks and other 
birds resorted. 
“THEN COMES THE DELICIOUS EXPECTANCY OF THE = 
mornin 
APPROACH TO THE CLUMP, THE PEERING IN, THE One mM &) as 
FIRST SIGHT OF THE HIDDEN TREASURE.” NEST I reached the 
AND SURROUNDINGS OF THE CANVASBACK 
outer edge of an 
area of flags, I heard sounds of pattering and chirp- 
ing. In a moment a brood of eight little downy 
Ducks, evidently but a day or two out of the shell, 
appeared in the open water in a well-ordered line, 
swimming with all their might. And then, with a 
rush of despair, came the mother, a Green-winged 
Teal, to the rescue. She threw herself in the water 
in front of me and lay there fluttering, as though 
sorely wounded, swimming a little and then flying 
up, only to return in a moment to repeat the same 
performance. Meanwhile the little ones had dis- 
appeared in the rushes further along, but the little 
mother desisted not in her protestations till I with- 
drew from the water’s edge to inspect some young 
Pintails, nearly half grown, that were skulking in 
the grass. We caught one, and my boy-companion 
188 
