A North Dakota Slough 



BY A. C. BENT 



With Photographs from Nature by the Author 



SEATED in a comfortable buckboard, with two congenial companions, 

 and drawn by a lively pair of unshod bronchos, we had driven for 

 many a mile across the wild, rolling wastes of the boundless prairies, 

 Avith not even a tree or a rock in sight, unconfined by fences or roads, and 

 with nothing to guide us but the narrow wagon ruts which marked the 

 section lines and served as the only highways. It was a bright, warm day 

 in June, and way off on the horizon we could see spread out before us 

 -what appeared to be a great, marshy lake; but it seemed to fade still farther 

 away as we drove on, and our guide explained to us that it was only a 

 mirage, which is of common occurrence there, and that we should not see 

 the slough we were heading for until we were right upon it. 



We came at last to a depression in the prairie, marked by a steep em- 

 bankment, and there, ten feet below the level of the prairie, lay the great 

 slough spread out before us. Flocks of Ducks, Mallards, Pintails, and 

 Shovellers, rose from its surface when we appeared, and in the open water 

 in the center of the slough, we could, with the aid of a glass, identify 

 Redheads, Canvasbacks and Ruddy Ducks, swimming about in scattered 

 flocks, the white backs of the Canvasbacks glistening in the sunlight, and 

 the sprightly upturned tails of the Ruddies serving to mark them well. A 

 cloud of Blackbirds, Yellowheads and Redwings, arose from the reedy 

 edges of the slough, hundreds of Coots were scurrying in and out among 

 the reeds, a few Ring- billed Gulls, and a lot of Black Terns were hovering 

 overhead, and around the shores were numerous Killdeers, Wilson's Phala- 

 ropes and other shore birds. The scene was full of life and animation, 

 stirring the enthusiasm of the ornithologist to the highest pitch, and we 

 lost no time in picketing our horses and preparing for a closer acquaintance 

 with the inhabitants of such a bird paradise. 



Numerous great Marbled Godwits and Western Willets were flying 

 about the marshy outskirts of the slough, acting as if they had nests in the 

 vicinity, which, however, we were unable to locate. 



The beautiful and graceful little Wilson's Phalaropes were very tame, 

 flitting about daintily among the grassy tussocks, where their nests were 

 w^ell concealed in the thick grass. Killdeers were flying about us, bold and 

 vociferous, protesting at our intrusion with their plaintive cries. ''Look 

 here, look here!" they would seem to say, but their spotted eggs were hard 

 to find, even on the bare, open shores where they nested. 



Soras and Virginia Rails were nesting in the shallow water among the 

 short grass on the edge of the slough. The Virginias' nests were very 



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