414 Bent, Su?nmer Birds of Southwestern Saskatchewan. [oct 



colony. In the same slough Western and American Eared Grebes 

 were breeding as well as numerous Coots, Bitterns, Canvasbacks, 

 Redheads, Ruddy Ducks and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, but 

 collecting in these sloughs was impracticable as the water was too 

 deep to wade even with our longest waders. All of the commoner 

 ducks were exceedingly numerous, such as Mallards, Pintails, 

 Gadwalls, Baldpates, Shovellers and Blue-winged Teals, and were 

 nesting on the grassy islands and in the meadows. A few Forster's 

 Terns were seen, and Marsh Hawks and Short-eared Owls were 

 flying about over the meadows. The whole region was fairly 

 swarming with water birds and to merely mention the species we 

 recorded gives but a very meager idea of their actual abundance. 

 It is to be hoped that this locality, so well adapted for their require- 

 ments, will remain for a long time undisturbed. It is poorly 

 adapted for agricultural purposes and is ten miles distant from 

 the nearest settlement. There are no suitable camping sites near 

 it, as firewood and good drinking water are not easily available, 

 and the myriads of mosquitos which infest this locality make the 

 collector's life miserable. If it could be set aside as a government 

 reservation and the birds could be protected, it would prove a 

 safe asylum for many years. 



While exploring a long, narrow strip of gravelly beach which 

 extended well out into the waters of Big Stick Lake, on which 

 numerous Piping Plovers and Common Terns were nesting, we 

 noticed a small island, about 300 yards from the shore, over which 

 a cloud of gulls were hovering. Numerous Avocets were flying 

 back and forth between the island and the beach, a flock of Pelicans 

 flew off and settled on the island, various ducks were swimming 

 in the lake near it, and everything seemed to indicate that we should 

 find it well worth visiting. The next day, June 14, 1906, our 

 guide hitched up a pair of horses and drove us out to it, through 

 the shallow water, landing us on a narrow point of beach. It 

 was a low, flat island, surrounded by gravelly or muddy beaches, 

 largely bare on the higher portions, except for a scattered growth of 

 coarse dead weeds, but supporting quite a thick growth of long 

 grass on the lower or flatter portion. It may have contained more 

 than one acre of land but certainly not over two acres at the most. 

 As we landed a flock of American White Pelicans flew off from 



