THE OOLOGIST 



171 



hill Crane, which I found nesting but 

 once, and that, long, long ago. Coots, 

 of course, are found nesting, common- 

 ly, amid the coarse grass or the cat- 

 tail areas ; along with Prairie Marsh 

 Wrens and sundry semi-aquatic Spar- 

 rows: Judd-Song, Nevada-Savanna (h), 

 Nelson, and possibly, the Le Conte. 

 (This species, however, rarely de- 

 scends from the willowy meadows of 

 the uplands). 



Of course, the Bobolink and the 

 Meadow Lark, (neglecta), fail not, 

 from such choice environ; and, oh, 

 the Phalaropes, the giddy, gay, de- 

 mure, mis-mated Wilson Phalaropes! 

 A whole chapter of delightful comedy 

 inheres in them! Among the rarer 

 birds of the region are the Upland 

 Plover, once common, now rare, 

 thanks to the wholesale murderings to 

 Avhich they have been subjected, on 

 the prairies of Texas, the Western Wil- 

 let and the Marbled God wit. (Both of 

 the latter, some of you older "boys" 

 may be surprised to learn, nest almost 

 exclusively on the upland. 



Among the most numerous of tlm 

 birds of the Cheyenne Region is the 

 Montana Red-wing. Superb, as all its 

 fraters are, this Red-wing has charms 

 peculiarly his own. More mellow his 

 call; more restless his mien; more 

 dainty his nest; more astonishingly, 

 more bewilderingly beautiful the eggs 

 of his mate! But oh, the changes of 

 these seventeen years! No more call 

 the Sandhills of an early morning. The 

 gay "Her-le-e-e-r" of the Upland Plov- 

 er is heard no more. Of the dozen 

 species of Ducks, the Mallard, the Pin- 

 tail, the Blue-winged Teal and the 

 Ruddy, alone remain, (although to be 

 sure, further north I have recently 

 found, to my delight, the Gadwall and 

 the Baldpate nesting). 



The Black-crowned Night Heron has 

 disappeared. The Canada Goose has 

 discreetly vanished. The Pinnated 

 Grouse is, I am inclined to believe. 



slowly receding from the area it had 

 once begun to usurp from its second- 

 cousin, the Sharp-tail. 



Some birds, just a few, are increas- 

 ing in number. Chief among these will 

 stand the Clay-colored Sparrow and 

 the Nevada Sparrow. The McCown 

 Longspur is quite as locally distribut- 

 ed as of old, and perhaps a trifle less 

 uncommon. (It seems to favor, for its 

 nesting, the newly-sown f;elds o"' 

 wheat in later May) . It is a delight 

 to record the Chestnut-collarsd Long- 

 spur, most exquisitely beautiful of all 

 prairie birds, as well holding its 

 own. And this, one believes, will con- 

 tinue indefinitely, thanks to the untill- 

 ableness of large areas of morainic 

 hillside and plain. 



In speaking of the birds that largely 

 were, I have quite over-looked the Bur 

 rowing Owl, because, perhaps, one 

 rarely runs across it. Yet quite as oi 

 old, in places where boulders lie thick 

 and badger holes abound, one may 

 come upon a male, during the early 

 days in June, winging, in ghostly 

 flight, from hillcock to hillcock, very 

 clumsily betraying at the last, as do 

 so many birds that worry, the little 

 mound, so densely strewn with 

 powdered horse-manure and grass- 

 hopper legs, all margining an eight- 

 inch hole that trends, slopingly, down- 

 ward and onward, to where Madame 

 is sitting on her eight white eggs, up- 

 on a mat of binding-twine. 



In giving the census of the aquatic 

 birds of the Cheyenne region I have 

 ommitted reference to the two 

 species that have, with the Phala- 

 ropes, given me most of delights, the 

 Wilson Snipe and the Yellow Rail. 

 (One might also tell of the rather rare 

 Sora and the still rarer Virginia; but 

 that's hardly worth the while). In 

 truth, both Yellow-Rail and Wilson- 

 Snipe lore should make up, Kipling- 

 wise, "another story;" quite as it is 

 likewise true of the Phalaropes. Ex- 



