HUNTING BIRDS WITH A CAMERA 



193 



"two's company" 



For ages the Owl was regarded by superstitious people as an ill-omened bird of prey. You 

 may judge for yourself whether they arc spooky or just spoony. These Barn Owls are the 

 night police about the farm to keep mice and gophers in check. 



The thick growth of tales made an ex- 

 cellent mattress. By spreading sleeping- 

 bags on top of a high btmch and rolling 

 in carefully, we generally had a good bed 

 for the night. In the early part of the 

 evening we were two or three feet above 

 the surface, but by morning we had sunk 

 down just about to water level. 



The largest bird colonies of this region 

 are located on the west side of the lake. 

 In one place, for half a mile, the Western 

 Grebes, \\'hite Pelicans, Farallone Cor- 

 morants, Great Blue Herons, California 

 and Ring-billed Gulls, and Caspian Terns 

 had combined, as it were, to form one of 

 the most extensive bird colonies we had 

 ever seen. 



To the east of the Klamath lakes are 

 other large alkaline bodies of water where 

 water fowl abound — Summer, .Vbert, 

 Goose, Warners, Harney, and Malheur 

 lakes. In the spring of 1908 we started 

 into the Malheur country, which is his- 

 toric ground for a bird man. In the 

 early seventies the well-known ornithol- 

 ogist, Captain Charles Bendire, was sta- 

 tioned at Camp Harney, on the southern 

 slope of the Blue Mountains. He saw the 

 wonderful sights of the nesting multi- 

 tudes on Malheur and gave the first ac- 

 count of the bird life in that region. 



On the south side of the lake, at the 

 site of the historical old Sod House, a 

 large spring rises at the base of the grav- 



