86 



THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



nest was built amongst the long grass on 

 the banks of the creek, and the male bird, 

 who was swimming in the creek, was joined 

 by the female after I startled her off the 

 nest. 



After supper I had a ramble amongst the 

 hilly prairie north of the farm, where I 

 found a nest of the Desert Horned Lark, 

 containing four eggs. 



May 29 — This morning Spalding, who 

 was sitting outside the house waiting for 

 breakfast, called me to come out if I wanted 

 to see an Antelope; and there he was, a 

 fine buck, looking over a fence right in 

 front of the house, not two hundred yards 

 off. He ran along the side of the fence, 

 stopping now and then, but one of the set- 

 ter dogs caught sight of him and gave 

 chase, and the Antelope disappeared over 

 a slope. 



After breakfast I started out for the day, 

 and walked to the lake, which is three 

 miles away from the farm. On my way 

 along the creek I came across a nest of the 

 Pintail, with six eggs, and as there was no 

 down in the nest I left it for three daj'S, 

 when it contained nine eggs and a good 

 supply of down. 



Near the lake I came across the skeleton 

 of a Buffalo in a good state of preservation. 

 Swimming in the water were a number of 

 Pelicans, Herring and Ring-billed Gulls, 

 while all along the muddy beach were nu- 

 merous Avocets, Marbled Godwits, Killdeer, 

 and Bartrara's Sandpipers feeding. I saw a 

 tremendous flock of Semipalmated Sand- 

 pipers. There must have been over a 

 thousand of them. They go further north 

 to breed. 



All along the southern slopes south of the 

 lake was snow three feet deep, and it had 

 not disappeared when I left Rush Lake on 

 June 2ndi I walked for three miles around 

 the south shore of Rush Lake, when turn- 

 ing round a point I saw a large, lanky 

 timber wolf running along the beach. He 

 had, no doubt, seen me first, and as I had 

 only a small collecting gun with me, I was 

 not sorry to see him hasten his steps away. 



He stopped twice and turned round and 

 stared at me, and I began to wonder what 

 I would do if he should change his mind 

 and come towards me, so I fired off my lit- 

 tle gun and it had the effect of making Mr, 

 Wolf put as much distance between us and 

 in as short a time as possible. I confess I 

 breathed more freely when I saw him dis- 

 appear in the distance, nearly two miles 

 away. 



However, I though it best to turn back, 

 as I did not want to be surprised by the 

 brute laying in ambush in one of the small 

 coulees which occur all along the shore of 

 the lake. 



I made up my mind I would not come 

 out again without a few ball cartridges and 

 my hunting knife. 



I ascended a ridge out of reach of the 

 mosquitoes and sat down and ate my lunch 

 and watched the^Pelican fishing in the lake 

 below. The country around here is very 

 wild and lonely, and the only house for 

 miles around is the farm, which I could see 

 on the hillside, five miles away. 



On my way across the prairie back to the 

 farm I flushed a female Pintail Duck off 

 her nest, containing nine pale greenish-buff 

 eggs. As I was tired, I did not go out 

 again after supper. 



May 29 — This morning I again descended 

 to the flats south of the farm and shot spec- 

 imens of Killdeer, Wilson's Phalarope, 

 McClown's Longspurs, Desert Horned 

 Larks, and found the nests of several com- 

 mon birds, such as Sora Ra:il, Red-winged 

 Starlings, Shoveller and Wilson's Phala- 

 rope. 



Went and had dinner at the farm, 

 where I found a stranger had arrived, 

 and I was introduced to Jim Sanderson, the 

 Government scout, who had spent twenty 

 years in this wild country, long before the 

 railway was built, and when the Indians 

 were a powerful and warlike nation. He 

 told me he remembered Rush Lake when it 

 was twice its present size, and after dinner, 

 as we sat out on the veranda smoking, he 

 pointed down to a spot in the valley, and 



