50 Zhc Mavbler 



lees, I never heard it anywhere else. A few collectors are familiar with the 

 topography of the coulee regions of North Dakota. Midwesterly, in that 

 ferruginous-rough-leg State, the solemn, ever present bnttes give way, in cer- 

 tain areas, to the usual watersheds. Here and there treacherous bogs are 

 found, amid the detritus of sandstone that caps the very summits of the 

 buttes. From these bogs, with their unharvested growth of luxuriant coarse 

 grasses, tiny and very narrow streams of ever-cool water splash noisily down 

 into the broader coulees below. In these broad areas, lush with luxuriant 

 and succulent grasses, wanton the water birds, with many a land-habitant 

 disporting for joy, or hawking for prey, amid the plethora of insect life. 

 Here wing the Rough-legs, after meadow mice ; here are wafted upon soft 

 winds the silent and uncanny Short-eared Owls. Here in the early morn- 

 ing dawn of fragrant June days hoot and crow the Sharp-tailed Grouse, 

 even long after their mates are brooding eggs amid the lupins on the 

 stony hill-sides. 



Here, too, amid rank tules, the Yellow-head agonizes out his brassy 

 " oo-gl-ee-e-a-a-a-dl" Here the Marsh Wren plies his mushy marsh mass among 

 the cat-tails, with a deal of merry hearted rustic piping. Here at sunset, 

 poised over the rank, moist grasses, the Nelson Sparrow utters his soft, 

 ecstatic "kr-sh-sh-sWa" Here beside the miriest depths the Sandhill Crane 

 stands sentinel, and here, as a wanton merely, the (miscalled) Willets flash 

 the splendor of their white-pied wings, with all the mellow, echoing ring of 

 that splendidly inspiriting, " Tr*whir, wktrrzt." 



The Soras are here, yet very few in numbers. And the Black Rail is 

 here, though science will flatly deny it. And right here, chiefest of all, 

 most restless yet most fearless of all, is the Yellow Rail, least known and 

 most rare, beyond the faintest shadow of a doubt, of all the mid-American 

 water-birds. Mr. Maltby found a nest or two of the Yellow Rails on the 

 botrs at the summits of the buttes. I have never either heard or found these 

 birds there. Feeding, usually, among the shorter grasses, (yet always near 

 the water), the Yellow Rail frequents, chiefly, amid the soft, tall meadow 

 grasses. Herein they skulk, restlessly, feeding on what the water brings. 

 They seem greatly local of habitahce, and-greatly attached to local breeding 

 grounds. The nesting sites, so far as discovered, are found amid the green, 

 growing grasses where water is under four inches in depth. The Rails 

 spend much time amid dense masses of dead, tall grass ; with what intent 

 thev never tell. Few neater nests are made. Most nests are very elaborate, 

 built into grass masses with elaborate pains. The canopies are very thick, 

 and it seems the birds prefer much to have last year's hay-rake leave a can- 

 opy for them. Save for one nest, found by Mr. Maltby, very few have been 

 found amid masses of dead grass, and most of canopies have given evidence 

 of being made of hay-masses found ready to use. My own nests have all 

 been found in clean land, amid wholly-green grasses. The Yellow Rails 



