26 Bird-Nesting 



miles from Winnipeg. This was my destination. I was glad to 

 get out of the train. Many Indians came from their camps 

 to meet the trains, and offer for sale buffalo horns, which they 

 collect on the prairies and polish them. I bought a fine pair 

 for seventy-five cents. I secured a comfortable room at the 

 station, and before breakfast I went out to view the neighbor- 

 hood to see what the prospects were for collecting specimens. 

 The name Moosejaw is an abridgement of the Indian name, 

 which, literally translated, is "the-creek-where-the-white-man- 

 mended-the-cart-with-a-rnoose-jaw-bone." Moosejaw is a small 

 market town with a population of GOO. Running through 

 Moosejaw is a creek which empties itself into the Qu'Appelle 

 river. To the south of Moosejaw the creek runs through some 

 swampy ponds, fringed with willow bushes, and I soon found 

 out that this was a paradise for birds. It was early morning, 

 and the place was alive with curlews, godwits, killdeers and 

 other birds that had come down from the high prairies to 

 feed. Beyond the ponds the creek drains a deep wooded 

 valley. This is the only place for miles around where trees 

 grow, and consequently swarmed with bird-life. Arctic 

 towhees and vireos were numerous, also warblers and thrushes 

 were singing merrily. I hastened back to breakfast, satisfied 

 that I had struck a good collecting ground. Breakfast over, 

 I put on my long rubber boots and went to explore the ponds 

 south-east of Moosejaw. The curlews and godwits had left, 

 but killdeers were very numerous, and there were several pairs 

 of those handsome birds, the Wilson's Phalarope. Black terns 

 were numerous, and as I approached began to fly around 

 screaming, so I concluded they had eggs and nests on some of 

 the numerous islands fringed with rushes and willows. On 

 the far side of the ponds are clusters of bushes, and on ap- 

 proaching, numerous bronzed grackles appeared and became 

 noisy. It did not take me long to find a number of their 

 nests ; they were bulky structures made of twigs, roots and 

 grasses mixed with mud and lined with dry grass, and every 

 bush contained from one to three nests. I had soon a number 

 of fine sets, and as they were the first I had ever taken of this 



