424 Bailey, Wild Life of an Alkaline Lake. [oct' 



or the rich, honest call note of the Song Sparrow. In a fortunate 

 moment we got a flash of color from a sprightly Yellow-throat. 

 More frequently from the tules we flushed the quaint Carolina 

 Rails that slanted up with droll, heavy-bodied, short-winged 

 flight, to speedily drop down losing themselves among the myriad 

 stems of their safe cover. When surprised in the yellow-green 

 weeds outside the tules they buzzed back to them before our eyes. 

 When a gun went off near one it would give a shrill scream, and 

 during the mornings their strident laugh was often mingled with 

 the talk of Coots and the quacking of ducks. 



As we walked along behind the tule hedge a confusion of most 

 remarkable sounds came from the tules where invisible Coots 

 were swimming about — coughing sounds, frog-like plunks, and a 

 rough sawing or filing kuk-kawk'-kuk, kuk-kaick'-kuk, as if the saw 

 were dull and stuck. Often there was just a grating kuk-kuk-kuk- 

 kiik-kuk-kuk. But all the mixed medley had the sound of good 

 fellowship, and, too, an open fearless disregard of who might be 

 passing the other side of the tule screen — for who wanted Coots? 

 Glimpses of open water showed the whole surface of the lake 

 dotted with moving forms, and in the cool crisp morning air while 

 the water at the foot of each tule was sparkling, every duck on 

 the lake made a glistening point of light. The oval slaty Coots 

 with black necks and white bills before them sat the water like 

 toy ducks, diving and swimming about making intersecting wedge- 

 shaped wakes; while the chunked little Ruddy Ducks, the males 

 with handsome ruddy bodies, sat with spread fantails sticking 

 straight up, often with their stocky heads over their shoulders so 

 the clear white cheek patches showed across the lake. 



Downy young Ruddies were seen swimming around among the 

 tules with their parents although it was September, and half 

 grown birds were among the groups of Coots. Redheads had also 

 probably bred in the tule lake for they were often seen with the 

 Coots and Ruddies feeding out in the deep water where the pond 

 weed, Potamogcton, grew under the surface. As we walked around 

 the lake all the migrating ducks flew before us, but the Redheads 

 would gather with the Coots and Ruddies, the dark horde merely 

 shifting as we did from one end of the lake to the other. If hard 

 pressed the screaming Coots would go splashing across the water 



