THE CONDOR 
A Bi-Monthly Magazine of 
Western Ornithology 
Volume XXI January-February, 1919 Number 1 
[Issued January 28, 1919] 
A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION 
By FLORENCE MERRIAM BAILEY 
(Continued from volume XX, page 178) 
V. FROM THE BRIDGE OVER THE COULEE 
HE FARMER at whose house I stayed on North Sweetwater offered to 
take me down the road to the Belgrade Bridge over the Coulee, three 
miles south, one morning, on his way to town, saying that he almost al- 
ways saw Ducks in driving across the Bridge, and that they were quite tame, 
being used to seeing people. 
The Coulee was said to meander down across the prairie all the way from 
Canada, but although that would be only fifty or sixty miles, the map did not 
fully bear out the statement. At the southern end of its sluggish course it 
served as a connecting link between the eastern and western lakes of the Sweet- 
water chain, a few rods west of the Bridge opening into the middle one of the 
three western lakes, while to the east of the Bridge, by means of interlacing 
waterways, it completed the chain. 
The Bridge, protected by cnly a narrow hand rail offered an unobstructed | 
view of the narrow Coulee with its bordering cane and marsh grass, that, on 
the west, wound out past a long point into the lake; on the east, meandering 
out of sight between high reedy banks. To the north, from horizon to horizon, 
the view was of prairie grain fields. At the south end of the Bridge, a thicket 
of wiilows frequented by Goldfinches made a good screen from which to 
watch the more wary birds on the water below and to listen to the neighboring 
songsters. A large cottonwood looking down on the thicket attracted a Balti. 
more Oriole which might not otherwise have been found there; and when the 
wind rustled the leaves of the cottonwoods and willows, bringing the fragrance 
of the wild prairie rose, Song Sparrow, Maryland Yellow-throat, and Yellow 
Warbler sang blithely, while from the marsh grass beyond came the tinkling 
clattcr, clatter, clatter of a Marsh Wren. Meanwhile, Red-winged Blackbirds 
aud other passersby occasionally lit on the Bridge rail for a look about. 
