THE NIDIOLOGIST 





JUNE 2 1, 2:45 ^- ^i-i found me alighting 

 from a train at a little station among the 

 sand hills in the northern part of Cherry 

 County, Neb. 



Cody (the place being named after Hon. W. 

 F. Cody, " Buffalo Bill ") can boast of a popu- 

 lation of about sixty persons, but it is quite a 

 commercial and trading station, being located 

 three and three quarter miles south of the 

 South Dakota line, aid three hundred and 

 forty-five miles (by rail) northwest of Omaha. 

 Directly north of Cody, in South Dakota, lay 

 the " Pine Ridge " and " Rosebud " Indian 

 Reservations, which abound in small alkali 

 lakes, ranging in size from one hundred to one 

 thousand acres each, and fill the valleys be- 

 tween the sand hills. 



This country is used almost exclusively for 

 cattle grazing, and is, therefore, ]jretty wild in 

 spite of its being so near to the settled parts, 

 and it is on account of this wildness that I 

 made my 1895 pilgrimage there. 



After a short sleep and breakfast I hired a 

 young man to drive me and ray luggage to a 

 cattle ranch north of the town and bordering 

 directly upon the Nebraska and South Dakota 

 State line. The drive, which occupied nearly 

 an hour (on account of the sandy roads), was 

 around, over, and through the sand hills, which 

 are sparsely covered with buffalo grass, and in 

 a few places, particularly the hilltops, with 

 numerous species of cactus. Many of the 

 cacti were in full bloom, and beautiful blos- 

 soms they were. 



Mourning Doves, AVestern Meadowlarks, 

 Bobolinks, Grasshopper Sparrows, Dickcissels, 

 Bartram's Sandpipers, Western Nighthawks, 

 Killdeers, and other birds were numerous. 



After arriving at Newberry's Ranch, which 

 was to be my headquarters, I began my prepa- 

 rations for work afield, and, with a view of 

 "sizing up" the country, started out for a 

 stroll, taking my egg box along. 



About two hundred yards northwest of the 

 house lay one of the alkali lakes before men- 

 tioned I started out toward the end of a nar- 

 row neck of land which runs out into the lake 

 (which is locally known as West Lake), think- 

 ing that I would take a bath, but had walked 

 but a few yards through the tall marsh grass 

 when I flushed a female Blue-winged Teal from 

 her nest and eleven badly incubated eggs. I 

 was somewhat surprised to note the advanced 

 stage of incubation, as I supposed that they 



were later breeders and that I would not se- 

 cure sets of this species until about July i. 



While I dislike taking incubated eggs I nev- 

 ertheless pocketed my scruples and packed the 

 eggs in my box and again started toward the 

 point of land. 



I had proceeded but a short distance when I 

 flushed another bird of the same species and 

 took another set of eleven badly incubated 

 eggs. Both of these nests were built in hollows 

 scooped out of the sand, lined with fine grass, 

 which was mixed with feathers and down, in 

 the high marsh grass such as is found in all 

 swampy places. 



I saw numerous broods of young Mallard 

 and Shoveler Ducks, and came to the conclu- 

 sion that I had arrived too late to secure many 

 sets of Duck's eggs, and in that I was correct. 



As a record of every find Avould be too tire- 

 some I will quote from my notebook such 

 items as would be of interest. 



After lunch in the evening of June 22 I 

 started out for a stroll toward a string of high 

 sand hills which lie about a mile east of the 

 house, and, after walking through a colony of 

 striped ground squirrels near the top of the 

 hills, I found myself the object of a great deal 

 of interest to a pair of Long-billed Curlews. 

 These large birds seemed to think that I was 

 intruding upon their domain and tried to drive 

 me away by flying about my head, all the while 

 screaming, ^^ Kei'loo — kei lo-o-o ! Kerloo-0-0-0 1 "■ 



I looked for their nest until dark without 

 success, and resolved to return in the morning 

 and not leave until I found it. 



Early the next morning I was again on the 

 top of the hill and was again pursued by the 

 Curlews. 



They would fly around my head, sometimes 

 within a few feet, and once so close that I felt 

 the wind of their wings on my face ; then they 

 would change their tactics and fly away to a 

 distance and return, flying low along the ground 

 and directly toward my head, until, arriving 

 about ten feet from me, they would swerve tO' 

 one side about six feet and utter a guttural 

 sqiiak, at the same time soaring up at an angle 

 of about forty-five degrees, and repeating this 

 maneuver again and again. 



After watching them for a short time I lay 

 down, and in about a half hour the birds 

 alighted and stopped screaming and one of 

 them started to cautiously sneak through the 

 sparse buffalo gra.ss while the other kept w-atch 

 over my actions. 



I had no difficulty in following with my eyes 

 the movements of the bird that was skulking 

 along, and saw her suddenly disappear from 

 sight, at which I concluded that she had set- 

 tled down on her nest. 



