56 Bird-Nesting 



tinguished from those of other ducks : they are olive grey, 

 with a buffy tinge, and measure 2.30x1.60. 



Xear the top end of the lake we came across a perfect skele- 

 ton of a large buffalo : at the base of the horns was some hair, 

 and it had evidently only been there a few years, judging 

 from its perfect condition. We tried to shoot some very small 

 sandpipers at the north end of the lake. They ran amongst 

 the grass like mice, and at last John shot one which proved to 

 be a northern phalarope, and soon afterwards we flushed 

 another from its nest, and four eggs. We were surprised 

 to find the rednecked phalarope breeding in this region. The 

 nest was a circular hollow in the sand, three inches in diam- 

 eter, and was lined with a few blades of grass, and the eggs 

 four in number were the smallest sandpipers we had ever 

 found. They have a ground colour of olive brown, and are 

 heavily spotted with blackish brown. They were fresh. We 

 saw several of these small phalarope swimming out in the 

 water with Wilson's phalaropes. We had now arrived at a 

 stony strip of land that swarmed with avosets, but we could not 

 find a single nest. A short distance out were two small sandy 

 islands, and as several terns and gulls were hovering around 

 screaming, we decided to take off our boots and stockings and 

 wade out to examine these islands. In sitting down I almost 

 sat on a nest of Wilson's phalarope containing one egg. We 

 waded out to the first island, and there a sight met our eyes 

 which made our hearts throb with joy. There on the ground 

 were scores of nests of avosets, Foster's terns, as well as a few 

 of those of the Bonaparte's gull. In walking about we had to 

 be careful at every step for fear of treading on the eggs. The 

 avosets fle\v around jelping, and the gulls and terns flying 

 over our heads screaming all these species combined made a 

 deafening noise. 



The nests of the avosets were simply hollows in the sand, 

 lined with a few blades of grass, and usually contained four 

 eggs, many of which were partly incubated ; some nests only 

 contained two or three eggs, and these were quite fresh. One 

 nest contained five eggs, which is an unusual occurence. The 



