Vol i907" IV ] Bent, Summer Birds of Southwestern Saskatchewan. 411 



20 feet high often occupied flood plain areas from 50 to 100 yards 

 wide; and, as they were frequently irrigated at periods of high 

 water, they often supported a rank growth of underbrush which 

 in some places had developed into dense thickets of willows, thorns, 

 and other high growing shrubs. Most of the timber was of this 

 class, an open growth of the larger trees, with thick patches of under- 

 brush and occasional dense thickets among them. We occasion- 

 ally found, however, dense shady groves of small poplars, balms 

 or quaking aspens, about 15 or 20 feet high, entirely devoid of 

 underbrush, occupying limited areas in well watered bottom lands. 

 The streams were all small, meandering sluggishly through devious 

 courses which had been deeply cut below the level of the plains, 

 leaving frequently high 'rut-banks'; they were generally shallow 

 enough to wade and often narrow enough to jump across. During 

 periods of heavy rain the streams soon became very much swollen; 

 during the first week in June, 1906, we were favored with an un- 

 usually heavy rain fall which caused a rise of fully 10 feet in Maple 

 Creek, submerging much of the timber and flooding the surround- 

 ing plains. 



The largest trees contained the nests of Ferruginous Rough-legs 

 or Swainson's Hawks which were often visible for long distances, 

 as they stood out plainly above the surrounding timber. Hunting 

 for hawk's nests was therefore a simple matter as it was merely 

 necessary to drive along on the high land and examine the large 

 trees with a glass. The available nesting sites for hawks were so 

 limited that we found their nests quite numerous in all suitable 

 timber; ten occupied nests were examined in a single day's drive 

 of about twelve miles. The deserted nests of the larger hawks 

 were sometimes occupied by Horned or Long-eared Owls. The 

 box elder groves made satisfactory homes for the Sparrow Hawks, 

 where we found them nesting in natural cavities or in deserted 

 Flicker holes. Birds were more abundant in the open box elder 

 groves than elsewhere in the timber, among which the Western 

 House Wrens were decidedly the most numerous and most con- 

 stantly in evidence; the woods were full of their delightful little 

 bubbling songs and every small cavity in the dead branches or 

 weather worn trunks of the box elders would sooner or later con- 

 tain one of their nests. Hybrid Flickers of various colors were 



