150 



THE OOLOGIST. 



An Outing in Assiniboia, 1895. 



I left Battle Creek, Mich, May 25, 

 ^:15 a. m., for Fort Qu Appelle, Assa. 

 for a couple of vveeks of collecting and 

 studying the nesting habits of the birds 

 of the N. W. Territory. As I had spent 

 some time in this locality, June, '94, 

 and had rare good luck in this grand 

 collecting ground, 1 anticipated much 

 pleasure and a goodly supply of Ducks, 

 Plovers, Hawks, Sparrows and other 

 kinds of rare birds, nests ana eggs. I 

 had a tent, a complete camping outfit, 

 a good gun, lots of good provisions, 

 a good guide, and two assistants to help 

 blow the eggs, fill out datas and cook 

 the necessary meals. 



After a pleasant ride through Michi- 

 gan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Min- 

 nesota, Dakota and Manitoba, and see- 

 ing a wonderful quantity of Ducks, Plo- 

 vers, Phalaropes and Hawks flying out 

 of the sloughs and around the track of 

 the C.P. Ry. in Manitoba, always an in- 

 teresting sight to a lover of the birds, I 

 at last found myself at Qu Appelle sta- 

 tion on the line of the C P. Ry., Tues- 

 day morning, time six K. I exps^cted 

 my brother to meet me at the station, 

 but found afterwards my letter had not 

 been received in time, as his home is 

 twenty miles from the post office, and 

 he gets his mail but once a week. As 

 breakfast was not I'eady at the hotel, 

 and the stage would not leave for Ft. 

 Qu Appelle, a Hudson Bay Post, twenty 

 miles distant, until 8:30 a. m. I put on 

 my rubber boots and took a stroll north 

 of the station. I saw several Hawks, 

 flying around the bluffs and recognized 

 a FerruginousRough-leggedHawk, male, 

 also a Swainson's Hawk, but did not 

 discover their nests; I flushed several 

 Prairie Chickens out of the bushes, and 

 searched carefully for a nest but was 

 unsuccessful; saw a fellow Warbler, 

 severalClay-colored Spariows and other 

 small birds, returned to the hotel and 

 was soon I'eady for the trip to the Fort. 



The road to the Fort is very smooth 

 and hard in dry weather. We had a 

 fine team and made the distance of 

 twenty miles in three hours, arriving at 

 the Fort at 11:30. On the way over the 

 dog, a fine setter, flushed several Mar- 

 bled Godwits, Spotted Sandpipers, nu- 

 merous Field Plovers, Horned Larks 

 and Sparrows out of the grass but I did 

 not attempt to search for any eggs. 

 Several of the Plovers feigned lameness 

 and no doubt their eggs were close by 

 the road. Goshawks were flying around 

 close to the trail, and I passed a tree 

 from which I took one egg in June, 

 '94. Did not stop to examine the nest. 



Fort Qu Appelle a post of about 600 

 people, is beautifully situated in the 

 Qu Appelle Valley, surrounded on both 

 sides by high hills, and quite close to 

 the Fishing Lakes, three lakes close to- 

 gether, in fact close connected by necks 

 or rivers of narrow widths, full of fine 

 pickerel, pike, white fish and many oth- 

 er kinds of fish. The first lake is close 

 by the town. There is a small patch of 

 willows on the beach between the town 

 and the lake. I walked through this 

 patch and saw a lot of different kinds 

 of Ducks, four Canada Geese and a lot 

 of Gulls, Terns and Plovei's on the peb- 

 bly beach. The Geese allowed me to 

 approach within 30 yards and then flew 

 across the lake. The Ducks simply 

 swam out a little ways. The Plovers 

 paid no attention to me. No doubt 

 many of the birds had nests close by, 

 but I had no time to search for their 

 eggs as I wished to leave the Fort at 

 one K. for my brother's home. Hiring 

 a buck-board I started on the last stage 

 of my journey, up the sides of the hills 

 and over the plains and after passing 

 a number of Indian villages of Sioux, 

 Crees and other kinds of savages, I ar- 

 rived at my brother's house about five 

 K., 'p. m., feeling first-class after my 

 long trip. 



My brother was pleased to see me 

 and took uie out and showed me a 



