66 THE CONDOR Vol. XX 



sometimes coming as low as ten or fifteen feet from my head. They generally 

 flew near together, especially as they approached me, but toward the ends of 

 their beat would sweep off wide apart in a broad turn. In flying swiftly by 

 with closed tail the disappearing Phalarope suggested the bullet-like end of a 

 dirigible, but when one hesitated over my head, its slender outstretched feet 

 and legs trembling from arrested motion, its spread tail suggested a white silk 

 fan. Sometimes the beautiful birds would hover in air with feet hanging, call- 

 ing wek-wek-wek-wek-ivek. 



Most of the time during the first day that I was watching them, two pairs 

 of Redwings and two White-wings were following me. When they were excit- 

 edly flying over my head, one of the Phalaropes almost jostled wings with a 

 Blackbird, and another time when the weaving wings became confused, a Barn 

 Swallow actually chased a Phalarope for a good swing of the circle, a Swallow 

 being used to circling the earth unhindered. Again, a Killdeer added its emo- 

 tional cry in passing. When a 3 r oung Redwing flew clumsily and noisily out 

 of hiding, the old ones made a great to-do, one of them projecting a handsome- 

 ly decorative figure against the blue overhead, with wings and tail widely 

 spread. As I passed a fence, an old male addressing his mate puffed out his 

 scarlet epaulettes till he seemed all red, the glowing color filling the eye. A 

 third Phalarope appeared on the scene later, but did not join in the demonstra- 

 tion. 



There were two pairs of Phalaropes apparently living in the slough, and 

 the two that most persistently followed me about were probably the larger, 

 more briliantly colored females patrolling the slough while their mates — re- 

 versing the general laws of nature as they do — were brooding the eggs and car- 

 ing for the young. But in any case the presence of these most interesting birds 

 made the slough a compelling place to return to. 



Enticing as it had been from the presence of the teasing, invisible Soras, 

 now, with a bird of rare charm conspicuous in its sky, the little Rail 's songs called 

 irresistibly from its green cover. There was a delightful Sora concert before 

 sunset one evening when I was there, the blithe songs tripping joyously down 

 the chromatic scale, and at night, from the open windows of the farm house 

 occasional outbursts came till nearly midnight from this joyous, irrepressible 

 Bobolink of the Sloughs. 



The afternoon following my discovery of the Phalaropes, 1 again made my 

 way down to their attractive home. Small cumulus clouds floated in the soft 

 blues of the level horizon while big white clouds with wind-frayed edges stood 

 out in the deeper blues above • but as with the Big Slough, the low horizon 

 clouds seemed to come close, to make the prairie circle small and intimate, to 

 make the Phalarope Slough a little world of its own. And what a sunny, 

 peaceful world it seemed, with the western sun yellowing its tall waving grass 

 and giving a keen edge to streaks of yellow mustard beyond ! Across the near 

 sky line, telling of peace and plenty, a gang plow moved slowly back and 

 forth. As the horses went and came, I corrected my count of five, for one horse 

 without a white nose stripe — interesting point in Protective Coloration — had 

 not been discovered at first ! 



As I waded slowly about the slough, swashing through the water in my rub- 

 ber boots, getting whiffs of fragrant mint and enjoying the pink flower spikes, 

 near the line of the wire fence the Redwings followed me solicitously and the 

 White wings flew overhead watchfully, but — clear mark of intelligence — after 



