Jan., 1918 A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION 31 



When the wheat was only a few inches high, sand-colored ground squirrels 

 and big jack rabbits were easily seen. Small heads stretched up from vertical 

 backs seemed to watch you wherever you went, low whistles calling your atten- 

 tion to the animated flickering tails. Sometimes one dropped down from on 

 tiptoe to slide into its hole before you, or a close group with heads at different 

 family levels stood erect around a hole returning your interested gaze. The big 

 silent jack rabbits loomed large above the low ground cover as they loped along 

 head down, seeming all hips, the white tail and ear backs making them so con- 

 spicuous and easy to follow over the grain fields that they had the appearance 

 of being surprised with the lid off. One that I must have rudely awakened 

 from a noonday nap jumped out of its pretty form, a cozy little cavern pret- 

 tily roofed by the headed straws of a sheaf of wheat, a choice home for the 

 solitary wild creature of the earth. 



As the wheat grew and I walked down the narrow dead furrows between 

 its rows, it was a pleasure to come upon the low prairie roses with wide spread 

 petals smiling back at the sun. The wheat was late in coming up because phe- 

 nominally heavy spring rains had flooded much of the country and the grain 

 could not be put in at the proper time. 



3. PASTURE SLOUGHS 



' ' There 's water in every slough, this year, ' ' the farmer said, and as I went 

 about I found myself corroborating his statement in rubber boots. 



Just inside the pasture fence of our next neighbor on the north was a 

 streak of open water heading a slough that on our side of the fence fanned out 

 widely under cover of high, wide-bladed slough grass. A pair of Shovellers, 

 very likely the pair whose nest I had discovered near by, attracted me to it and 

 I crept cautiously down the fence line stopping behind posts to see if the out- 

 cry of the Redwing population had betrayed my presence. The Shovellers 

 swam around, however, feeding and bathing quite oblivious of spectators, the 

 light brown duck, after giving herself a thorough sousing, twisting her head 

 back to fix her feathers and the tricolored drake putting his dark head under 

 water here and there in search of food. When they had been enjoying them- 

 selves, paddling around close together in a pretty confidential, conjugal way 

 for some time, a brown sister, apparently also a Shoveller, flew in. At this the 

 duck quickly swam out toward the visitor, as if with friendly greeting, while 

 the drake stretched up till he looked very long necked and gave several jerky 

 bows of the head ; after which he loyally swam off to his mate. The visitor, left 

 alone, went swimming off by herself, perhaps waiting for her mate to join her. 



A few days later a pair of Shovellers, presumably the same, were on the 

 slough with a pair of Blue-winged Teal that looked very small by comparison. 

 When I started down the line of the barbed wire fence, our neighbor's horses, 

 big gentle Percherons, crowded in to see me, and while I was making friends 

 with them the Shovellers discovered me, the ducks disappearing and the drakes 

 swimming to the farthest end of the slough. When the horses had strolled off 

 I put my camp stool down beside the fence where the high grass helped conceal 

 me and I could watch the water between the wires. While I was waiting for 

 something to happen, I had a chance to enjoy the laugh of the Sora Rail that 

 kept coming from the slough grass near by. 



Presently a second Shoveller drake, showing his blackish head, white 

 breast, and dark maroon belly, flew over and lit on the water with bill tilted up 

 airily, and at once started across the slough after Shoveller no. 1, clucking and 



