May, 1922. 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



89 



in places along the valley bottom and much of it 

 still remained in spite of summer heat. It was 

 on one of these large snow patches that we spied 

 the bear family as our trail brought us around the 

 crest of a low ridge. Two yearling cubs not far 

 away were boxing and tumbling around on the 

 snow. We stopped to watch them for we were 

 quite uncertain whether they were playing or 

 quarrelling. We soon spied the mother bear, an 

 immense animal stretched full length on the snow 

 napping or taking a sun bath. The young bears 

 rambled down on the snow and began to frisk 

 around and over their mother. The old bear 

 raised her head and assumed the attitude of a big 

 dog reclining in an attentive position. It was 

 plain that those young bears could grow a great 

 deal more before they would be as big as their 

 mother. 



The bear family were two hundred yards from 

 the trail and on the east side of Marsh-Adams 

 Creek, while our point of observation was on the 

 west side of the Creek. A boisterous stream ran 

 between us and the bears. Yet I must admit we 

 were a bit nervous, for it had not been long since 

 the bears had crossed that stream. We had seen 

 on the trail, fresh signs of bear and the scent of 

 bear still clung to the bushes. 



We were anxious to get a good picture of those 

 bears and a little more anxious to know what 

 would happen when they discovered us. There 

 was no tree at hand, and it gave some measure of 

 comfort to know that we were with a prospector 

 who had tamed a few bears and his 30-30 Winches- 

 ter might do some more taming should occasion 

 arise. 



The wind was in our favor, yet it was not long 

 before the old bear became restless and began to 

 sniff the air. It was certain that her nose was 

 the principal locator, for she got up and walked 

 towards us. The prospector assured us that the 

 bear's eyesight was good only for close-up ob- 

 servation. The grizzly was soon satisfied that 

 we were no friends of hers. She got up on her 



hind legs and would drop down and come a little 

 nearer and then repeat her performance. At 

 the nearest approach, all three bears were stand- 

 ing on their haunches, a cub on either side of the 

 mother bear. The young bears were intently 

 watching their mother as she diagnosed the air. 

 It was plainly the business of the mother bear to 

 sound the retreat or continue the advance. 



They say a grizzly bear is powerful, deliberate 

 and quick to act. We felt the truth of the first 

 two qualities and were waiting to see what might 

 follow to prove the third. The mother bear was 

 very deliberate, standing there on her haunches, 

 champing her teeth, her mouth wide open at 

 times and a long tongue circling about her face. 

 We did not know whether she was foaming with 

 rage or just nervous or possibly licking her chops 

 at prospects of battle. The creek made so much 

 noise that it was impossible to say whether there 

 was any snarling in connection with all this 

 grimacing. I think it must have been a demon- 

 stration of pure ugliness for she suddenly turned 

 and drove the cubs off up the snow in a very 

 undignified and formidable manner, scarcely 

 pausing at the edge of the timber. It looked as 

 if the young cubs had expressed a wish to come 

 over and see us, but it had not met with mother 

 bear's approval. 



I learned some weeks later that the very excel- 

 lent and hea\'y camera packed by the engineer 

 who was with us, had failed to put on record what 

 would have been some rare pictures. Heavy, 

 thunder-clouds were threatening and the most 

 acceptable thing had happened in the retreat of 

 the grizzlies. Hastening along the rocky trail, 

 we arrived at Spencer in a drenched condition. 

 We had been seeing live things that morning and 

 had no thought of the discomforts of packing in 

 the rain. There is only a small cabin at Spencer, 

 so we made a camp fire and a cup of tea in the 

 open. The sun was shining by the time we were 

 ready to continue our journey. 



NOTES ON THE WATER-BIRDS OF LAKE XEWELL, ALBERTA 



By J. A. MuNRO, Okanagan Landing, B.C. 



n 'HE recent agricultural development in the dry 

 J- belt of Alberta that has been fostered by the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway Company has led to 

 important changes in the bird-life of the district, 

 particularly in the vicinity of Brooks. Following 

 the planting of grain and fodder crops, gardens 

 and shade trees in this district, came an influx of 

 land-birds, attracted by the insect hordes which 



invariably attend agricultural activities in a new 

 country. The increase of passerine birds that 

 closely follows the settlement of prairie or wood- 

 land is a phenomenon familiar to every bird- 

 student and that the Brooks region should 

 attract and hold many species of land birds is not 

 particularly notable. The novel feature in this 

 instance is, that not only was there a conspicuous 



