V ° 1 i907' IV ] Bekt, The Marbled Godwit. 161 



But it was during my two recent trips to Assiniboia and Saskatche- 

 wan in 1905 and 190G that I became more intimately acquainted 

 with the Marbled Godwit in its summer home. That portion of 

 northwestern Canada, lying north of Montana, which was formerly 

 called Assiniboia, is now included in the new Province of Saskatche- 

 wan, and it was in the southwest corner of this province, along the 

 line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, that my observations were 

 made. To a casual observer, passing through this region in a rail- 

 road train, the country seems barren and uninteresting — an end- 

 less waste of bare rolling plains and low-lying hills, broken only by 

 an occasional small frontier town, or by the scattered houses of the 

 hardy ranchmen, who make a living by raising cattle, horses, and 

 sheep, which are allowed to range at will over the unbroken plains. 



But to the ornithologist this region is full of interest. It is well 

 watered with numerous small streams, spreading out in many 

 places over broad, grassy meadows, over which clouds of Black 

 Terns are hovering; numerous ducks of various species may be 

 seen swimming in the shallow sloughs, or jumping into the air, and 

 flying off as the train alarms them. Every small pond-hole is sure 

 to be occupied by one or more pairs of ducks, and the larger lakes 

 and sloughs are full of water birds of various kinds. Alkali lakes 

 and ponds, with their broad, whitish mud flats, are frequently 

 passed, and these are generally tenanted by flocks of migrating 

 shore birds, or by a few pairs of graceful and showy Avocets. 

 Thus, though bird life may be scarce over the greater part of this 

 region, in favorable localities, such as the vicinity of lakes and 

 streams, birds are exceedingly numerous, rich in species, and 

 abundant in numbers. 



The lakes are generally wholly or partially alkaline, with barren, 

 muddy, or stony shores, and without vegetation in or around them. 

 But many of the larger lakes have fresh water streams running 

 into them, and about the mouths of the streams are more or less 

 extensive deep water sloughs, overgrown with tall bulrushes, and 

 sometimes a few cat-tail flags. These form the great breeding 

 grounds for wild fowl — Western, Horned and American Eared 

 Grebes, Canvasback, Redhead and Ruddy Ducks, Franklin's 

 Gulls, American Coots, American Bitterns and Yellow-headed 

 Blackbirds; and the surrounding shores and meadows offer a 



