52 The Birds o)} Biirna Visia Lal'c. 
breakfast. Hero the Ivottoiii of tlio Lake was firm and not 
too deep, so I was able to n e the i;oIe and was' soon 
pusiiing along at the rate of oome five miles an honr. Flocks 
of Uucks of all kinds, principally Mallard, Pintail, and Teal 
were continually passing over my head, to alight on the 
open water, here some 10 miles wide. As the sun rose, reveal- 
ing my presence in the shadow oF land, flocks of Gulls took 
wing, principally Herring, and I^lack-backed (identical with 
our English birds). The Black Cormorant was also numerous. 
It differs from our liird by having no white patch upon the 
thigh. Bird life upon this side of the lake was not A^ery 
plentiful, as there Avere no feeding grounds, the water being 
confined by a levee some ten miles long, constructed by the 
company owning the adjacent land; however. I soon reached 
the southern feeding grounds. Here the water shallows off 
to nothing, making fine feeding grounds for all kinds of 
Waders, as well as for the surrace feeding Ducks. A fringe 
of tules some two hundred yards from the shore pro- 
tects the grounds from the north winds and rough seas, that 
prevail in wild weather. As my boat passes through an 
opening in the tules T find the shore alive with birds. Some 
of the Ducks took wing, but the Waders, which are little 
molested, suffered me to approach quite near. A large flock 
of Avocets {Recurvirostris americana), with a few Black- 
winged Stilts {Himaniopiis ra/xJidns) allowed me to get very 
close and it was interesting to watch the former using their 
curiously shaped beaks. Instead of probing as do the Stilts, 
they move their bills rapidly from side to side with a kind of 
sweeping movement. I think they take a 'good deal of vege- 
table food. A little closer in shore I noted a large flock of 
small Waders. These proved to be Curlew -Sandpipers (Tringa 
suharquata), a little bird I h,id previously met with in the 
Isle of Man. Poling slowly along I put up many more 
Wader;: including a mixed flock of Curlew and Whimbrel. The 
former were the Eskimo species CNumenius horealis), but the 
Whimbrels were similar to our European birds. Feeling that 
I had earned a rest, I pushed the 'boat into a bunch of tules, 
put the paddle athwart it and made it fast to the tules on 
either side. This makes the boat perfectly rigid, so that 
it would be impossible to upset it. Throwing a couple of 
decoys on to the open water, I wait to see what comes along. 
