WATERFOWL. IN NEBRASKA. 17 
LAKES OF BROWN COUNTY. 
The lakes of Brown County number about 25, and lie in the south- 
western portion. They are scattered over an irregular area about 
10 miles east and west and about 14 miles north and south. Moon 
Lake, the largest of the group, is about 3J miles long and somewhat 
more than half a mile wide at its widest point, but most of the others 
are much smaller, though Enders Lake, including its " overflow," 
is some 2 miles in length, and Long Lake even more. Moon Lake, 
one of the northernmost, is separated from the more southern lakes 
by several miles, but all the others lie much closer together, usually 
not over a mile apart, and in many cases much less. While few 
have outlets, none except Alkali Lake are very strongly alkaline. 
Most of them are permanent, though a few of the smaller ones dry 
up during the summer. Moon Lake, Willow Lake, Alkali Lake, 
Crystal Lake, and Long Lake have little or no marsh about their 
borders, but Filbrick Lake, Marsh Lake, and the " overflow " of 
Enders Lake are almost entirely surrounded by heavy growths of 
water vegetation. Most of the others have at least a small area of 
marsh. Enders, Marsh, Clear, West Chain, Diamond, and Rat Lakes 
seem to be the best for ducks, while the Twin Lakes, Crystal, Alkali, 
Long, and Post (or Clapper) Lakes harbor comparatively few. 
Post Lake and Long Lake are apparently too near human habitations 
to be successful breeding grounds for waterfowl, and Willow Lake 
is too much frequented by fishermen. Crystal Lake furnishes no good 
breeding or feeding ground, but why the Twin Lakes are not in- 
habited by more water birds is not apparent. 
Water birds are fairly well represented in this region during the 
summer, though much less so than in eastern Cherry County. Per- 
haps this is partially accounted for by the more thickly settled con- 
dition of the country and by the great amount of hunting in years 
past. The most abundant species of breeding water birds in this 
area, in their order, are the black tern, American coot, blue-winged 
teal, American eared grebe, shoveller, mallard, gaclwall, jblack- 
crowned night heron, and pintail. Others that are fairly well dis- 
tributed throughout this region, but less numerous, are the killdeer 
and the upland plover. 
As in eastern Cherry County, the exceptional rainfall of the pre- 
vious few months had, in the autumn of 1915, raised the level of 
many of the larger lakes, and in some cases converted a more or less 
temporary pond or marsh into a permanent lake. Water birds in this 
section were at that time fairly numerous, though ducks were by no 
means so abundant as in eastern Cherry County, and from all ac- 
counts were little, if any, more so than usual. At the time of our 
120368°— 20— Bull. 794 2 
