50 



THE OOLOGIST. 



pair of Loons, as we approached they 

 laughed derisively at us, and by the 

 time we had launched the boat, they 

 had hidden themselves in the reeds and 

 rushes at the south end of the lake, and 

 we saw them no more. We thoroughly 

 explored the lake and the island in the 

 middle, but found no Loon's nest. 



We found three nests of Holboell's 

 Grebe One empty, one with three, and 

 one with four eggs in. One nest was a 

 mass of small water weeds, reed stalks 

 and mud and the other was of water- 

 lily roots, leaves and mud. The first 

 nest was in open water, about midway 

 between the lake's east shore and the 

 island. The other was close to the 

 edge in tall reeds and the water was 

 only a few inches deep. Yellow-head 

 ed and Red winged B ackbirds were 

 plentiful, and I got a set of four Red- 

 winged on the island, the nest being 

 woven to the tall reeds of last year's 

 growth, about three feet up and very 

 neatly made of coarse grass, woven 

 strongly together and lined with fine 

 grass. I also found a few nests of the 

 Yellow-head, but all were empty. The 

 nest of this species is much deeper than 

 Red-wing and generally placed higher 

 up. We also saw several pairs of Kill- 

 deer and young and many Ducks, most 

 of them with broods, but these we did 

 not disturb. I was struck by the ab- 

 sence of waders, which last July were 

 represented by Coot and Semi-pal- 

 mated Sandpiper, Wilson's Fhalarope 

 and Lesser Yellow legs. It was now 

 past noon, so we ate our lunch, then 

 packing our boat started for a large 

 chain of lakes, covering several acres of 

 land, quite a lonar way to the north- 

 west of this one. After a long and 

 tedious trip, traveling most of the time 

 through scrub timber and hay marsh 

 without a road, we reached «mr desti- 

 nation about 5 p. m. Then there was 

 so little of the day left we decided to 

 reconnoitre, and find out the best way 

 to get to the water on the lakes on 



the following day when we would have 

 time to thoroughly explore these large 

 and likely looking sheets of water. We 

 lefi our horse and rig at some distance 

 from the lakes, in the woods where the 

 bulldog flies were least plentiful, ard I 

 taking my gun we started over the 

 shaky marsh sod toward the smallest 

 lake of the three. As we neared the 

 reed bound edge of the lake the well 

 known laugh of the Loons as they 

 answered each other sounded in our 

 ears. Though the sod was very 

 treacherous, we, by picking our way 

 carefully managed to reach the edge 

 of the water I struck . the south end 

 while I made a point about half way 

 down the east side. As I parted the 

 reeds I beheld a fine pair of Loons 

 quite close to me, but as soon as they 

 saw me they dove to reappear at the 

 other side of the lake far out of gun 

 shot. However, unlike any loons I had 

 previously seen they positively refused 

 to leave the lake, even though we did 

 our best to frighten them oft". We both, 

 searched the margin of the lake care- 

 fully, and the reeds as far back as there 

 was any water, but we failed to find 

 any sign of nest or young, although I 

 firmly believe that they had either one 

 or the other- there, finally when we 

 could find no nest I decided I would 

 try for one of the birds and secreting 

 myself at the north end of the lake in 

 the tall thick growth of rushes I hid, 

 while A. took his pole and went to the 

 other end of the lake to try and 

 drive the Loons down. As soon as 

 they saw the man with the pole trave- 

 ling their way they dove and came to 

 the surface within about 100 yards of 

 me At a move of the stick they dove 

 again and rose nearer me, but it took 

 a great deal of patience to hold to my 

 hide, pestered as I was with innumer- 

 able mosquitoes till at last they ven- 

 tured within gun range, I fired, and 

 succeeded in wounding one, but it dove 

 again, only to reappear closer thau 



