WATERFOWL IN NEBRASKA. 
15 
Water Birds Observed October 5-12, 1915. 
GAME BIRDS. 
NONGAME BIRDS, 
Horned grebe. 
American eared grebe. 
Pied-billed grebe. 
Loon. 
Ring-billed gull. 
Franklin gull. 
Forster tern. 
American bittern. 
Great blue heron. 
Black-crowned night heron. 
Killdeer. 
Hooded merganser. 
Mallard. 
Gadwali. 
Baldpate. 
Green-winged teal. 
Blue-winged teal. 
Shoveller. 
Pintail. 
Redhead. 
€anvas-back. 
Lesser scaup duck. 
Bufflehead. 
Ruddy duck. 
Little brown crane. 
Sandhill crane. 
American coot. 
Wilson snipe. 
LAKES AT THE HEAD OF THE NORTH LOUP RIVER. 
The group of lakes at the head of the North Loup River comprises 
about 20 bodies of water, in general character very similar to those 
of eastern Cherry County. They lie within an area of 30 miles east 
and west and about 10 miles north and south; and, with the ex- 
ception of the westernmost, are relatively close together, most of 
them from a quarter of a mile to 3 miles apart. The greater num- 
ber are permanent, though without outlets and therefore more or 
less alkaline; a few, such as Brush Lake, Mud Lake, and Jumbo 
Lake, drain into the North Loup River. Nearly all are relatively 
small, not over a mile or two in length, several of them even less 
than half a mile long. Silver Lake, Red Willow Lake, White Wil- 
low Lake, and Speckelmire Lake, all of which are excellent duck 
lakes, have little or no marsh about their borders, and some of these, 
particularly Silver Lake, have partially sandy shores. The Twin 
Lakes and Mud Lake have a great part of their margins more or 
less sandy, and are almost deserted by ducks during the summer. 
Three of the lakes once having the greatest extent of marsh, and there- 
fore furnishing excellent cover for breeding waterfowl, namely, Brush, 
Scott Pullman, and Jumbo, have been ditched and drained for the 
purpose of utilizing their valleys as hay meadows. Some of the 
other lakes, however, have more or less marsh that is attractive to 
water birds. 
Water birds are here fairly plentiful in summer, though on ac- 
count of the small number of lakes and the draining of some of the 
best of these, the region is not of so much importance as either the 
eastern Cherry County group or the lakes of Garden and Morrill 
