GEXERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 31 



from their nests when I have been snipe-shoot- 

 ing thereabout. A few geese breed there also, 

 but perhaps these are only those which, owing to 

 being wounded or to some accident, have been 

 unable to join the great flocks in their spring 

 flight towards the North. From what I am told 

 by men who have been explorers and hunters in 

 the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, no 

 matter how far north Indians or white men may 

 penetrate, it is found that the geese go farther in 

 the summer, and bring back their broods in the 

 fall. In this Winnebago Swamp I have occasion- 

 ally found the nest of the sand-hill crane, and 

 sometimes that of the blue crane. The crane builds 

 its nest on the top of a muskrat house, just as 

 the geese do in that section. It lays two eggs, 

 much larger than those of a goose, especially in 

 length, and one of the cranes commonly keeps 

 watch by the nest. The nests of the ducks are 

 built on tussocks of grass. The Winnebago Swamp 

 used to harbor many wolves^ and there are a con- 

 siderable number there yet. Three years ago, in 

 company with a hunter named Henry Conderman, 

 I found the den of a she-wolf in the swamp, and 

 we took her litter of six whelps. Afterwards we 

 trapped the old one. Wc got thirty-five dollars 



