80 
(Thr Birds on Bnnw Vista Lalce. 
keep off hogs and other vermin, I was comfortable enough. 
Tlio cries of the various AvaterfoAvl, most of which are night 
feeders are much more noticeable by night than by day. I 
could plainly distinguish the various calls of Mallard, Teal, 
Wigcon, Shovellers, Gadwall, Pintail, Coots, Moorhens. Night 
Herons, Bitterns, and many others, while the occasional un- 
earthly scream of a wild cat — no doubt feeding on some of the 
stranded Cai'p — came up from the southern shore. Every now 
and then a dead silence would come over the Lake, only to be 
broken a moment later by an increased clamour of squawks, 
quacks, and whistles. I have never been able to explain 
these sudden silences. The birds seem to stop calling as if 
on a given signal. After a good night's rest, T was up at 
the first glimmer of dawn, and after a cup of hot coffee and 
the remains of the previous night's supper, T set out again, 
having the longest half of -the jonrney 'still to make. Around 
the point, on a broken down bunch of tules, T surprised 
an old coon, who had evidently eaten the best part of a 201b. 
carp. These animals are excellent swimmers, and it didn't take 
him long to reach the .shore. A Harrier, looking for break- 
fast, skims close by me. I .see its eye fixed on the wooden 
decoys in the lx)w of the boat, but it thinks better of at- 
tacking them, and go off lin"' pursuit of a passing flock of 
Teal, a useless chase unless there should be a crippled one 
amongst them. From around the next point comes the 
well-known trumpeting of Swans. Their call might easily 
be mistaken for the distant sound of a pack of hounds when 
in full cry. Over a hundred of these birds were feeding in 
the shallow water some three hundred yards inside of me. On 
.seeing the boat they separated into families; the two old birds, 
with from throe to four young ones, seldom more, and easily 
distinguishable from their parents by their darker colour. 
As I approached nearer, flock after flock took wing, and made 
for the open water, where they usually spend the day. I 
was now nearing my friends' camp which was situated at the 
moutli of the Kern River. Here the northern belt of tules 
commences, extending right across the Lake a distance of 
ten miles. I found my friends busy making preparations for 
a trip into Mexico, so after a short stay I set off for camp. 
The belt of tules through which I was now passing, varies in 
width from a half to two miles, and shuts off the northern 
