38 



calling out " Tewitt," and they do not settle down until the in- 

 truder has retired to a considerable distance. These birds are 

 very annoying, for they alarm the whole neighbourhood with 

 their cries, which cause many of the birds to leave their nests 

 and thus spoils the collector's chances of flushing other birds 

 off their nests. The eggs of the kildeer are rather handsome, 

 and a large series makes a fine display. The ground colour is 

 usually clay, sometimes drab, thickly spotted and blotched 

 with black and grey shell markings : some clutches have a 

 scratchy pattern of lines and spots. In size they average 

 1.53x1.10. My next find was a nest and four eggs of the 

 yellowshank, the nest consisting of a saucer-shaped hollow in 

 the ground, lined with grass, after the fashion of other plovers. 

 The eggs are smaller and not so broad as those of the Bar- 

 tram's sandpiper, and are more pointed and pyriforin. The 

 ground colour is like some specimens of the field plover, but 

 the markings are bolder. The eggs have a buffy clay ground, 

 and are thickly spotted with various shades of brown, with 

 numerous shell markings of grey. 



Like the Wilson's snipe, the yellowlegs aiv not numerous on 

 the prairies of Manitoba and Assiniboia: both species become 

 more abundant northward towards the Saskatchewan region. 

 Yellowlegs are more numerous at Bittern Lake, near Edmond- 

 ton, and are common in the neighbourhood of Little Slave 

 Lake. It was now five o'clock, and as my horse was getting 

 restless, and kept turning his head homeward, and moving oft' 

 of his own accord, I concluded to leave this charming spot 

 and return to Moosejaw. But just then a couple of curlews 

 arose, sol left the horse and buggy and went after them. 

 Bang went the gun, but it was a miss this time, and the curlews 

 flew away to some distance. I was searching the spot for 

 their nest, when, looking up I beheld the horse and buggy 

 going at a steady pace across the prairie. I at once gave 

 chase, calling out, " whow, whow," as I ran along, but the horse 

 took no notice, but kept on at a steady trot. After running 

 quarter of a mile he began to gain on me, and I was almost 

 out of breath running and calling on him to stop, and I found 



