4 Taverner, Birds of Red Deer River, Alia. [j a ^ 



habited. Here and there on the most promising of the wider bends 

 little ranch establishments peep out of the wooded shores, but many 

 of them in war time, alas, were closed and deserted, others seem to 

 have been occupied only long enough to obtain legal homestead 

 title, and only a few of them were occupied. Grazing is the princi- 

 pal industry in such places and most of the bush margin is traversed 

 by cattle paths. However, though scarcely a soul was visible 

 throughout most of the trip, we had only to climb to the prairie 

 level to find some of the most fruitful and best cultivated lands in 

 the Canadian west: so, though apparently traveling in the wilder- 

 ness, we were really never far out of touch with settled communities. 

 This was especially true and striking on the upper reaches and down 

 as far as the Tolman Ferry, Camp 6, where we made our last ex- 

 cursion out of the valley. At the last camp, No. 1 1 , when we finally 

 left the river, the upper level conditions were rather different, and 

 wide reaches of dry flat prairie dotted occasionally with bunches 

 of cattle and horses and only suitable for cultivation by aid of the 

 irrigation project of the Canadian Pacific Railroad met the eye 

 from the river to the railroad at Millicent. 



We left Red Deer June 25, arriving at Camp 11 near Steveville, 

 217 miles below, July 19. This was the site of the Survey's palae- 

 ontological collecting camp under Mr. Chas. Sternberg and here 

 C. H. Young remained until September 26, but the writer left for 

 British Columbia July 21. During this trip, occupying about a 

 month, no regular schedule was followed and we remained stationary 

 or moved to the next location as local conditions suggested. The 

 weather after the first day or two at Camp 1 was ideal for our work 

 and we were even spared, by the seasonal conditions, serious trouble 

 from mosquitoes that report had led us to expect to be bad. All 

 who travel on the river do not escape so easily. Once or twice 

 we camped too close to cattle herds and for our lack of foresight 

 Mere vexed with flies. These were a more serious menace to our 

 specimens than to us and our slow drying specimens of young 

 raptores were seriously threatened by the pests. Careful screening 

 of our drying trays however prevented further loss than the dis- 

 figurement of a few individual specimens. 



Our first camp (No. 1) was made some twenty-seven miles below 

 Red Deer, though only some 8-9 miles by road and just after we 



