THE PLAINS 



341 



II 



The birds, however, respond at once to the altered condi- 

 tions, and as we approach a slough, the Chestnut-collared 

 Longspur and Meadowlark alone, of our Plains birds, re- 

 main common ; the former slightly increases in numbers and 

 to them are added Bartram 's Sandpiper, trilling its weird 

 flute-notes, while numerous Western Willets, Marbled God- 

 wits, Long-billed Curlews, and Killdeer fly about one crying 

 noisily. 



About the border of the 

 sloughs, are Avocets, most 

 nervous and excitable crea- 

 tures, Wilson's Phalaropes, 

 Soras and several species 

 of shallow-water, dabbling 

 Ducks ; Spoonbills, Gad- 

 walls, Mallards, Pintail and 

 Blue-winged Teal being the 

 most abundant in the order 

 named. 



In the sloughs or lake 

 borders, grown with tall 

 grasses and tules, the nest- 

 ing birds are Western and 

 Eared Grebes, Franklin's 

 Gulls, Black Terns, Bed- 

 heads, Canvasbacks and 

 Ruddy Ducks, American 

 Bitterns, flying about act- 

 ively during the day, Coots, and Yellow-headed and Bed- 

 winged Blackbirds (A. p. fortis). 



Finally, there are the birds of certain islands in the 

 lakes, to which, according to the custom of ground-nesting 

 colonial birds, White Pelicans, California and Western 

 Gulls, and Common Terns, were confined, Wild Geese, as 

 well as some of the slough border birds just mentioned be- 

 ing, in some cases, associated with them. In this land of 



Bartram's Sandpiper on Nest 



