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Some Lake-Side Waders of the Northwest 
the husband of any one or all of them. 
Anyhow they are all head over ears in love 
with him. One such group of four followed 
me around one afternoon, as though anx- 
ious about their nest in the grass. They 
alighted in a pool to swim about, and | se- 
cured a snapshot of them. 
We will keep walking about through the 
grass just back from the shore of the slough, 
and it is nearly inevitable that eventually 
a small bird will go fluttering out almost 
from our feet, and there is the grassy nest 
skillfully concealed in the tussock, with 
four very heavily marked pointed eggs, 
with so many scrawls on them that they 
are almost black. The grass can be opened 
up, the camera left focused upon the nest, 
and a long thread connected with the 
shutter, and it will probably not be long 
before the solicitous and dutiful little hus- 
band will resume his brooding, and we can 
take his picture. 
One of the prettiest sights I have wit- 
nessed in bird life was when a male phala- 
rope fluttered up before me and disclosed 
four of the most singular-looking little 
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677 
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chicks I had ever laid eyes upon, with long 
legs and a striped black and reddish downy 
plumage, squatting in a heap in the grass. 
While | photographed them the stricken 
father circled twittering around me quite 
near by, giving me some good chances at 
him, too, with the camera. His wife, with 
less evident concern, matters more 
calmly from a greater distance, though she 
was by no means unmoved, and occasion- 
ally even ventured to join him, 
The phalarope is a perfect little gem in 
its beauty of plumage and grace of motion. 
Indeed there is something most attractive 
and appealing about the whole class of 
shore-birds, which so beautify both our 
marine and inland shores. Unfortunately 
they are becoming more and more scarce. 
The smaller kinds should never be classed 
as game birds, to be killed and eaten, any 
more than should warblers or thrushes, 
while those which are larger and more fit for 
food require more stringent protection and 
forbearance on the part of all true sports- 
men, to give them the chance which they 
so much need to recuperate their numbers, 
took 
Sodwit and avocet take breakfast together at the slough. 
j Ak. 
Vek, 
! 
Lepiter ,'70G, 
Cpe Lif , eo. 6 . 
