Ii6 



THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



marsh grass ; it contained four heavily 

 spotted eggs. I followed the winding 

 creek for three or four miles, flushing 

 Ducks every few minutes, but the only 

 nests I succeeded in finding was that of the 

 Pintail, containing eight eggs, one of the 

 Sora Rail containing ten eggs, and a 

 Western Savannah Sparrow containing 

 six eggs. After a six miles tramp across 

 the prairie I reached the farm, where I 

 found supper ready for me. 



June 4. To-day, as prearranged, Mr. 

 Palmer, a gentleman cowboy, drove up to 

 the farm with a horse and buckboard, and, 

 taking my canoe, gun and camera, and a 

 supply of provisions, we drove away four 

 miles north to Crane Ivake, a sheet of water 

 about five miles long by three broad. 



Mr. Palmer is the son of Sir. C. M. 

 Palmer, Baronet, a member of the District 

 Parliament, and head of the largest ship- 

 building yards in the world at Jarrow-on- 

 Tyne in the north of England. His son, 

 who was my companion for the next few 

 days, is a fine type of the gentleman cow- 

 boy ; he stands six feet three inches in 

 height, is considered one of the best horse- 

 men in the northwest; he almost lives in 

 the saddle, and has charge of some three 

 hundred horses at Crane I^ake. 



After four miles drive over the hilly 

 prairie we came to Bear Creek, which we 

 had to cross before we could reach the 

 lake, so Palmer selected, as he thought, a 

 suitable crossing place, and giving the 

 horse a spurt he drove into the middle of 

 the creek, where we stuck, and the horse 

 began to plunge and sink up to its shoul- 

 ders. I jumped off the buckboard and 

 found the water waist deep, so I dragged 

 my canoe into the water and Palmer cut 

 the traces and set the horse free, but the 

 animal had a narrow escape from drown- 

 ing, for had he turned over on his side we 

 could not have extricated him attached as 

 he was to the buckboard. 



A3 Palmer stood up in the buckboard, 

 which was nearly covered with water in 

 the middle of the creek, I could not resist 



photographing him in his dilemma. We 

 tried to get the buckboard out of the quick- 

 sand without success, so shouldering the 

 canoe we carried it to the lake, and by the 

 time we reached it the hot suu had almost 

 dried our wet clothes. We paddled to- 

 wards an island which was white with 

 Pelicans and on our approach the tremen- 

 dous birds rose in the air. They look very 

 singular flying with their long outstretched 

 necks and pouches hanging under their 

 beaks. We were much disappointed at 

 not finding any Pelicans' eggs on this 

 island, for we had concluded they had a 

 rookery here, but there was another island 

 separated from this one by a channel of 

 water, so we waded across, but found no 

 Pelicans' nests. Avocets, Marbled God- 

 wits, Wilson's Snipes, American Stints 

 and Franklin's and Bonaparte's Gulls were 

 numerous, but the only nest and eggs 

 found were those of the Canada Goose. 

 The storm which had been approaching 

 for some time now broke out upon us, and 

 it began to hail and a strong wind got up 

 all of a sudden, so we hurriedly examined 

 the island for nests of Avocets and other 

 birds, but Palmer warned me that we had 

 better make for the canoe, and on reaching 

 the channel, which we had crossed with 

 ease a short time before, we now found 

 high waves dashing through it. We 

 waded through the surf, but several times 

 the water washed over our shoulders, and 

 on reaching the canoe we were glad to get 

 under it, for the hail stones were almost 

 as large as marbles. The water began to 

 rise, so we had to drag the canoe to the 

 highest part of the island, which was only 

 about a foot above the level of the water, 

 and this accounted for the birds not nest- 

 ing here ; for at times these sandy islands 

 are no doubt submerged by the rising 

 water. We felt very miserable, our pro- 

 visions were wet and we could not eat 

 them, we were drenched to the skin, the 

 water threatened to cover the island, and 

 all around the surf was running a yard 

 high and above us the sky was inky black, 



