Jan., 1918 A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION 37 



broken tree lines of the lake shores on the horizons, above which the prairie 

 circle of white encompassing clouds closed in, making the Slough a little world 

 apart. 



The west wind bent down the seeded tops of the brown grass so that it was 

 easy to wade east with their bowed heads giving way before me, but in wad- 

 ing west against the wind I had to force my way through the dense stand, 

 sometimes entangling my feet. Wading up and down north and south, how- 

 ever, was comparatively easy. Except in the natural openings, the only way 1 

 could see the water was by pressing the grass down with my probing stick. 

 One platform and a few suggestions of nests were found in this way, one show- 

 ing prettily how the first stalks are bent down, still attached. 



With the sun in the west, under water the stalks of the slough grass were 

 golden; and even my brown, bark-covered stick turned to gold. The clear 

 sparkling surface was patterned with intricate reflections of grass stems, and 

 when a surface chink admitted, white cloud masses were hinted in the mirror. 

 What a rare place to live! What a cover! A waving grassy cover, waving 

 and softly seething in the wind. 



In forcing my way through, no birds were seen, but a sudden splash often 

 told of some one gone before, and in a Coot colony the birds were all around 

 me, some answering my te-tub, te-tub, while others barked and laughed and 

 coughed as if choking — one choked almost under my hand and another startled 

 one spat out its tub almost in my face, while the voices of young added to the 

 confusion. But only one flash of feathers did I get in this dense protecting 

 jungle. At one of the openings of a tule bordered pool where there was a 

 warning smell of sulphur, I heard the challenging tip, tip, tip-r'r'r-up of an 

 invisible Ruddy Duck. Other ducks, singly or in pairs occasionally crossed 

 over the Slough, a female Mallard gave her loud quad-, or a Barn Swallow cir- 

 cled over the brown sea of grass; while overhead the white clouds encircled 

 this microcosm, a place of abounding life and rare beauty. 



(To be continued) 



THE BREEDING BIRDS OF BEXAR COUNTY, TEXAS 



By ROY W. QUILLIN and RIDLEY HOLLEMAN 



FOR the student of Ornithology, Bexar County is perhaps the most ideally 

 situated of any area of its size in Texas. Being on the dividing line be- 

 tween hills and prairie lands, it contains practically all the birds of these 

 two diverse regions. The northwestern and western portions are rocky hills 

 covered with cedar, small oaks of several species and other trees and shrubs of 

 that category. The various small creeks have cut numerous valleys and ravines 

 in these soft limestone hills, producing many cliffs and ledges. The majority 

 of these are worn until they slope rather brokenly, only the harder strata offer- 

 ing sufficient resistance to the elements to remain abruptly steep. This is espe- 

 cially true of Cibolo Creek, which forms the boundary line of the county in this 

 section. The southern portion is more or less sandy, and is covered with mes- 

 quite, cactus and the many varieties of thorny bushes which form the so-called 

 chaparral. The bottom lands of the Medina River, which passes through this 



