20 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVIII 
if you go in a hole, back up ; turn your foot sidewise and bend the tules down 
under it; steady yourself with a handful of tules.” 
With these valuable directions in mind I made my way laboriously 
through canes and tules and along interior bays of marsh grass. Though 
none of the wary birds waited for me, a startled yellow ball bounded up into 
the air ahead of me and coming down proved to be a Maryland Yellowthroat ; 
I caught it giving its flight song in this explosive manner later. Tule Wren 
parents fairly held me up in the canes, demanding my business. There were 
many opportunities to compare the Tule Wren’s mechanical round, clatter , 
clatter , clatter, clatter, clatter, with the Short-billed Wren’s cha-cha, chat-ah- 
cha, or chee-chut, chee-chut, chee-chut, chee-chut, chee-chut, chee-chut , chee-chut. 
One of the Short-hills, singing out of sight in the marsh grass bordering 
the tules, at my answering whistle came out into view, a little light-colored 
hall on a grass stem. Excited by what he saw and heard he came on toward 
me, his tail flattened over his hack, singing hard, droll midget, bent on finding 
the intruder and having it out with him on the spot ; for this was his patch 
of marsh grass ! 
In working my way through the marsh, wading from one cane island to 
another, there came one glorious moment when the fact that just then there 
seemed no footing short of the orient was instantly forgotten, and visions of 
disappearing farmers and teams vanished, for whizzing over the tules only 
a few yards away came a Nelson Sparrow, a new bird to me, giving his loud 
flight song, his startling, original outburst, that struck the ear like a hang of 
cymbals — •’ Tsang'-ger-ee . 
AVhile this exciting outburst was still ringing in my ears, the old explorer 
of hogs joined me, and carefully testing footholds and ordering me to step 
in his hoot prints, led me out to the edge of the open water. A female Mallard 
burst from her nest beside us as my guide bent down a mass of long tules to 
serve as a platform, a very quaking platform it must be acknowledged, from 
which I could look out over the interior lake. At last I had arrived ! 
The water was so shallow that clumps and streaks of tules afforded shel- 
ter for the Coots and Ducks. Part of the surface of the water was covered 
with beautiful pinkish alga?. Surprised beside a wisp of tule, a Black-crowned 
Night Heron, crouching low as if trying to make himself inconspicuous, was 
in the fullest beauty of his nuptial plumage, lovelier than I had ever imagined 
lie could be, with delicate yellow skin around his face and white nuptial 
plumage curved gracefully over his back. Meanwhile a less experienced young 
one, a nondescript gawky long-legs, made itself the one object in the landscape 
by trying awkwardly to climb up a clump of tules. Swallows and Black 
Terns were skimming over the water, and a Tern with food dangling from its 
bill flew straight across the lake to the tules ; how I longed to follow ! A 
Ruddy Duck with a brood of ducklings sat on the water in a narrow tule lane. 
As we watched a handsome male Ruddy swam eagerly in as if to join his little 
family, but to my surprise and indignation was driven back by the mother. 
On emerging from the tules we climbed a low sagebrush hill from which 
we had a generalized view of the marsh and lake, whose blue water changed to 
green near the opposite shore. Across the lake the heads of a band of Red- 
heads caught the sun and glowed splendidly. Pied-billed Grebe, Blue-winged 
Teal, and a great number of Ducks too far away to be named gave me the 
satisfaction of knowing how thickly populated was this hidden lake. There 
had need be a Chinese wall around this home of the waterfowl ! 
