916 



THE OOLOGIST 



ed from another direction and I saw 

 one egg in a little hollow. 



Repeatedly I visited the same cover 

 and watched her withdraw from iden- 

 tically the same area, yet the number 

 of eggs had not increased. Could it 

 be that she was incubating only one? 

 On the thirteenth day subsequent to 

 the finding of the first egg I again 

 watched the fleet footed creature trip 

 over the uneven sod and as I approach- 

 ed the nesting site I was surprised to 

 see that the full compliment of four 

 eggs had finally been deposited. 



I was in northwestern Minnesota 

 during June, 1913. With my Indian 

 guide, Joe, we were beating the grassy 

 knolls and a Prairie Chicken arose 

 twenty feet ahead. She left a nest of 

 ten eggs. One hundred yards further 

 and I came upon another Chicken sit- 

 ting in regular woodcock fashion ex- 

 cept she moved her eyelids periodical- 

 ly and nervously. I have never seen 

 a sitting woodcock move a muscle un- 

 til actually disturbed. It was remark- 

 able how this Prairie Hen allowed us 

 to stand within three feet of her and 

 I thought what a splendid opportunity 

 to photograph a pinnated grouse on 

 her nest. Three days later sixteen 

 empty shells convinced me why this 

 Prairie Chicken was so attached to 

 the nest from which I never disturbed 

 her. 



Near the source of the great Missis- 

 sippi we came upon three broad, shal- 

 low pools with very muddy borders. 

 An imaginary line around the edge of 

 all three would have been equal to a 

 triangle with three equal dimensions 

 of four hundred yards each. We first 

 saw the pot holes June 14th and 27 

 Marbled Godwit were probing in the 

 oozy soil. They were tame, noisy and 

 several of them very solicitous. Three 

 groups of Phalarope comprising both 

 sexes were alternotely wading and 

 swimming in the dirty water and they 



too gave evidence of concern when we 

 approached certain portions of the 

 marshy boarders. Noisy Yellow Legs 

 of both varieties paroled the borders 

 and two large flocks of little shore 

 birds apparently Least and Semipal- 

 mated Sandpipers flew nervously from 

 pcnd to pond not allowing us to get 

 within one hundred and fifty yards of 

 them. Upland Plover could be heard 

 whistling on the elevated knolls in 

 every direction and from two to eight 

 birds were always in the air soaring 

 or volplaning to the cover of unbroken 

 raw prairie. 



We could find the nests of the Bar- 

 tramians but repeated searching would 

 not reward us with a single nest of 

 any other wader, so I returned next 

 day determined to obtain a few of the 

 birds at least. 



I took five Marbled Godwit and saw 

 a lone wader in the midst of one of the 

 boggy pools, which, to my surprise, 

 was a handsome plumaged Hudsonian 

 Godwit. I disturbed none of the Phal- 

 arope but it is quite evident they were 

 not nesting at the time we visited the 

 place. 



The Godwits were extremely fat, full 

 plumaged, but apparently non-breeding 

 birds 



This is the third time I have chanc- 

 ed upon small flocks of shore birds 

 during June but in each instance the 

 species were without either young or 

 eggs so far as our extensive observa- 

 tions went. In all probability many of 

 our waders do not breed until the sec- 

 ond season and are attracted to certain 

 places where their particular food is 

 abundant and the community is im- 

 mune from disturbance by either the 

 agriculturist or the shooter. 



Mr. E. W. Nelson, one of the pioneer 

 ornithologists of the Great Lake re- 

 gion used to cover the Chicago area 

 from the Calumet marshes southeast, 

 north to the Skokie and blind river 



