WATERFOWL IN NEBRASKA. 13 



few rods apart, but toward the periphery they are separated some- 

 times by several miles. From a high point on the southern side of 

 Dewey Lake, 9 or 10 of the largest lakes can be seen, and many more 

 undoubtedly would be within sight but for the high intervening 

 sandhills. These lakes are mostly without outlet's, except at very 

 high water ; yet, notwithstanding this, only two or three are strongly 

 alkaline, those most so being Big Alkali Lake, Little Alkali Lake, 

 and Alkali Lake. Nearly all are permanent bodies of water, that is, 

 they do not dry up during the summer, except perhaps during ex- 

 ceptionally rainless seasons. They comprise the largest lakes of all 

 the sandhill region, the biggest being Dads Lake, which is about 

 seven miles long and a mile or so in greatest width. Most of these 

 lakes have shores partially grassy or sandy, but have along their 

 borders at least a small amount of marsh ; but Clear Lake, Big Lake, 

 White-water Lake, Beaver Lake, Rat Lake, Cornell Lake, Durbin 

 Lake, Coleman Lake, Harold Lake, Cedar Lake, Belsky Lake, and 

 Alkali Lake have so little that it is of no real importance. Big Alkali 

 Lake, Little Alkali Lake, Willow Lake, Dads Lake, Clear Lake, and 

 Muleshoe Lake, together with some others of less importance, have, 

 shore lines partly or wholly sandy, although along most of them 

 there is at least a small stretch of marsh. Other lakes of this group 

 which have a greater or less area of marsh are Dewey Lake, Hack- 

 berry Lake, Trout Lake, Watts Lake, Chamberlain Lake, Red Deer 

 Lake, Johnson Lake, Foster Lake, Hanna Lake, Pearson Lake, and 

 Pelican Lake. The most important lakes that are wholly or largely 

 covered with vegetation are Ballard Swamp, the valley known as 

 North, Middle, and South Marsh, Wendler Swamp, Molly Marsh, 

 Twenty-one Lake, the Sweetwater Lakes, South School Lake, West 

 Rogers Lake, and Tate Lake. 



So far as its breeding water birds are concerned, this group of 

 lakes is the most important in the sandhills, for, with few excep- 

 tions, the A^arious kinds of waterfowl are, in summer, more abundant 

 here than anywhere else in the region. M^mj species, including 

 several kinds of ducks, are very numerous, and some of the lakes 

 present an exceedingly interesting spectacle during the nesting 

 season. The most frequently observed breeding species throughout 

 this group of lakes are, in the order of abundance, the black tern, 

 blue-winged teal, American coot, American eared grebe, shoveller, 

 pintail, mallard, and Wilson phalarope. Well distributed but less 

 numerous are the killdeer, upland plover, and ruddy duck. 



This part of Cherry County is a noted resort for hunters, many 

 of whom go regularly every year to enjoy the unusual advantages 

 for sport which the locality affords. Visiting sportsmen have built 

 clubhouses on many of the lakes for their convenience when hunting. 

 The clubhouses now in existence include the following: Red Deer 



