64 THE CONDOR Vol. XX 



The young when hatched are naked, but gradually become sparsely covered 

 with light down. Feeding, which is participated in by both parents, takes place 

 at short intervals during the greater part of the day, until the young are ready 

 to leave the nest. So far as I have been able to observe, the parent birds appear 

 to entice the ambitious nestlings into the tule and willow thickets away from the 

 open flats where they may have been hatched. This is probably in order to af- 

 ford them the shelter of the branches and, by removing them some little distance 

 from the ground, to protect them against small predatory mammals. 



In September the summer songs of the males have ceased and a great dimin- 

 ution in their numbers is noticeable. By November, sinuosa has again largely 

 retired to his tule jungle and with his added winter air of distrust is once more 

 the shy flitting figure of the December marshlands. 



San Francisco, November 9, 1917. 



A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION 



By FLORENCE MERRIAM BAILEY 



With one photo by Robert B. Rockwell 



{Continued from page 37) 



5. THE PHALAROPE SLOUGH 



ANOTHER slough only a few rods from the farm house filled a level floored 

 basin bounded by a low bench line. When the first settlers came, the slough 

 was an overflow from the lakes, one could row from it to both the north and 

 middle Sweetwaters, I was told ; but now in dry years the entire slough could be 

 mowed, as was attested by remains of fenced haystacks that made islands in the 

 open water of the slough. The grass was the typical headed slough grass 

 though not quite so high as that in the Big Slough, while its water was only 

 about knee deep. The place had attracted me from the first because of the Red- 

 wings that nested there and the Sora Rails whose ringing ecstatic songs came 

 from it. In looking for the invisible Sora, one day, I flushed a small timid 

 Sparrow, presumably the Nelson, which sang a variety of songs with the em- 

 phasis on the first and second syllables — chit' -tah-chitter ; chat', chat, chat-ah- 

 cha; chit', chat', chitter, chitter chit; or chit, chat, chittah, chittah, chittah — and 

 which gave a flash of buffy before he disappeared in the grass. When he had 

 gone down and I had roused the worried interest of several pairs of Blackbirds, I 

 had a great surprise. 



The Redwings wmich were following me around in the slough were joined 

 in air by two small waders, white from below and with sharp bony wing an- 

 gles. Slender, long-winged, able-winged creatures of the air, with long legs 

 projecting beyond their white fan tails, they were striking contrasts to the 

 stocky Red-winged Blackbirds, so evidently creatures of the earth. Much 

 smaller than the Upland Plover, with free open flight instead of the quick wing 

 beats of Bartramia, and with a hoarse cry too large for their size, they puzzled 

 me greatly; for it was hard to catch markings, they flew so high above my 



