Jan., 1918 A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION* 35 



A solitary Black-crowned Night Heron, perhaps the one seen with the Bit- 

 tern, was occasionally found, now circling over a small grassy slough where 

 frogs lived, now standing near enough a round rock to suggest the resemb- 

 lance its humped-over figure gave, its black back and white face producing an 

 unbird-like effect. When the stone turned facing me, the delicate coloring of 

 the long yellow legs and creamy body excited my admiration. 



A brown Marsh Hawk was often seen flying about, sometimes flopping 

 down suddenly after her prey ; Flickers were flushed frequently from the pas- 

 ture floor, and Killdeer were met w T ith now and then in the pasture. A pair 

 seen one morning were walking about in the midst of the white-headed yarrow, 

 making a pretty picture. Four were seen together the last of June, crying vo- 

 ciferously in a variety of ways that made me realize afresh that their kill-dee 

 is but a phrase in a varied repertoire. One of the family, possibly a parent, dis- 

 covering good feeding ground on the edge of the slough, stood and called and 

 called till another joined it at the feast. 



4. THE BIG SLOUGH 



All these visitors to the pasture were as actors in the play, disappearing as 

 the scenes shifted. One of the most tantalizing of our visitors was the loquaci- 

 ous Coot, for small talk such as ep-ep-ep-ep, ereck-creek, creck-eck-eck, and 

 peter-up, peter-up, peter-up kept coming from the high marsh grass of the Big 

 Slough the other side of our fence ; and a Coot often came out and stood under 

 the barbed wire, a gray figure across the slaugh, preening its feathers elabor- 

 ately. Other gray figures sometimes stood on stones at the head of our slough 

 preening, giving a flash of white bill now one side and now the other, or fed 

 with head down and tail up showing the white tail coverts. When startled or 

 in mood for a chase they would go rushing noisily after each other with a high 

 splash of white waters toward the fence line to disappear in the dense cover of 

 the Big Slough beyond. How enticing ! And inside the Big Slough was the 

 Black Streak ! Who could resist that ? 



Picking out as dry a place as possible, I crawled under the barbed wire 

 fence and waded out gingerly through shallow water among the low tussocks 

 of wide-bladed grass. Seeing a tract of brown-topped grass that looked dry 

 enough for better footing, I headed for that, but on making my way through it 

 found it shoulder high and soon was surprised by a preliminary cold trickle 

 over the top of a rubber boot. A barbed wire fence ran at right angles to our 

 pasture fence and the tops of its posts showed above the grass dow T n the length 

 of the Big Slough, in its course parallelling and almost reaching the Black 

 Streak ; and by following it I hoped at once to have secure footing and perhaps 

 be able to reach the Streak. But though I waded laboriously with boots full 

 of water and often uncertain footing down long lengths of it, at the nearest 

 point to the Streak a wide band of soft untrustworthy mud that I recognized as 

 part of the boggy ground an old settler had told me of fanned out from the 

 Streak and blocked my advance ; so, weary from heavy wading, I decided to 

 content myself for that day with wandering about the slough. 



In one place a half grown gray Coot flew before me, and adult Coots were 

 much in evidence. As I progressed, ducks rose and circled around, among them 

 a pair of Mallards, perhaps the pair that had visited the pasture. Female Pin- 

 tails were apparently the commonest, with heavily marked tail and back, and 

 white w T ing edgings, and one evidently flushed from her young tried to decoy 

 me away. Again and again she flew up near me with a hoarse quack and some- 



