Se a _BIRD-NESTING IN Nortu- West CANapa. WALTER RAINE. 4 a rr bee Oe Oe | } ay a8 ae ee ean i § ; ; j “* = = ; : : c > Tare ' - ™ y « ¥ . bf : ‘ $s (og ~ * J s ; ; t > "a a re em oe HInos- ge |, USavarlen, 8 _-SDNILSVH a ah vr’ Nh la 282 BIRD-NESTING NORTH-WEST CANADA ee St bee BD: @oroitta: PRINTED BY HUNTER, ROSE AND COMPANY. 1892 PRINTED AND BOUND BY HUNTER, ROSE & COMPANY 25 WELLINGTON STREET, TORONTO Ring-billed \ 7 sepewarepocen 151] AGVELaAlGOn' | 1. 2/thvge te 0 Neseiae ee he 128 os Iceland seo ee eee 129 Harlequin Duck. s..cde. 4.06 ee 100 Harriers Marshsos ae) - 80, 92 Hawk, Pigeon...... Sneed ie oh 184 ered tallies «miele eee . 194 ** Rough-legged......... LOTS >= | vSharp-shinned! = 42: eenaes- 193 2 SNE OMI coe nae 28, 149, 186 EP h Wai ee), aes On ee gee 160 Hooded Merganser ............. 64 Horned: lark i:\\.4 cs uoe oenete 60 Kildeer cit ae gee coi. Heo oO RLae iSinehinde ssa eee lao Kinglet, Golden-crowned..... aa ie.0) = Ruby-crowned ......... 19] SOE casei, te led ae ee et eee 187 Lapland Longspur............ 53, 04 Lark, Prairie-horned.... 60, 146, 190 cu baliid horned ye emey welt. ke 59 MOS DOLE Meche a) ee Rees. 60 Leconte’s Sparrow. ....5:..-..... 171 eastisandpiper-n.ts- sees | - 61 Teast ibtemnsrey mony iti tpae tie 186 Tuessersedipolen wasn. Sore sc. 143 Little Brown Crane..... 22, 151, 166 Long-billed Marsh Wren........ 146 lndez. PAGE Long-billed Curlew.......... 60, 119 Longspur, Chestnut-collared. 53, 146, (Al “ ep aricl erent ists 53, 54 ee McCown’s . 52, 58, 73, 119 Hoon. Common. erernn aie 6, 152 5S Black=-throatedsc. os cnneee 154 “«« Red-throated. Peer sete lars) Mailers apis nae aote ovate 59, 164 Magpie, Yellow-billed .......... 116 Marbled Godwit........... Sls tt!) Marsh Hawken cee come 80, 92 Marsh Wren, Long-billed... 146, 164 “©” Short- billed, 146, 182, 186 : Meadow Lark, Western......... 170 Merlin, Muropean: sie see ae 118 oe Richarasoniscemaee ener Matyi Night-hawk, Western ...... 142, 170 Northern Phalarope ............ 56 gs Raven Oz ate neue cones bie 130 r WAR WAI EE 5 one se' = res tare 27 me Shrike ss Soe) cs. was em 141 Owl, American Hawk .......... 160 s sBuropeam), “G9 is cnesrmrerae 160 SSS ULT OWA Overalls e ise = 66, 70 Str Great Grey ia cecrenit cine 16; 91 eo Greats nOnned sat) aie eee 191 oc Richardsonis sec eeiaee 91 CS Sa WENHOtl. 14 sels, conclu eae fie 161 Se SHOLE-CALEM a. eee 44, 45 tre ONG =CAEM! fo). nineties irene 192 “a lensmalin sy 2) oy ce) tee 91 Pelican, Wihtte) s\ 342. ace aes 47 Peregrine Falcon .........-.... 12 Phalarope, Northen ach hee 56 : Wilson’s 34, 56, 65, 121 Pigeon Hawk .. 5p seve «cebu orion 184 PinelGrosbealeey. samara 148 prairie Walcon. + ia. cee ete eee) Ptarmigan Rocky. cirri ee 97 ue VET co wot vectors eee 97 ee White-tailed....... : 97 FEU MOTIFS ox ores ts fares wyspoicns akeuetinenis See 130 Red-winged Starling.... 30, 112, 164 Red-headed W oodpécker 2 =e 112 Redpole, Wesser. 7.2 asions eee 143 Red=head Duck 2.2 -.:..\. ss)aceetee 182 Richardson’s Grouse............ 97 a6 Merliny. .ccce eee 117 os OWL. eich cee 91 Rufied:s Grouse s.¢ .. Je eer ae 195 Rusty; Grackden..-\yseepieecine 41, 112 Sandpiper, Buff-breasted........ 65 beast... crate 61 es Bartram’s.... 39, 36, 119 o Spotted b te, -/.i¢es 65, 74 Shovellersaent es cups ocho 44, 61 Index. vu PAGE PAGE Shonem Markee ct. as, cies 60, 146, 190 | Trumpeter Swan................ on ShrikewNorthern .0.).s-2> 0c 141 | Teal, Blue-winged.............. 29 Short-billed Marsh Wren........ 146] ‘* Green-winged......... 93, 142 Semipalmated Plover........... (aa nkkeyiiViulittune Se cya aie nei 44, 69 SHIpew Wilsonis\: 2-6 een coe ee 37,746!) Virginian) Rail 72.627 23... Ab hae 168 SU Oa SWIG Oe eerie ete cieteeiare 53;|)Wihooping|@rane: oe. ..024--... - 82 SHG Yn OW]. 5 ayenacsicke cates eusioe as 89 | White-throated Sparrow........ 190 Spotted Sandpiper ........... 655) 74) | Wihtp-EPoor- Wall gece mace cs 3! 170 Spracue’s! Pipitan. ce ose snsie. Oh NWA G Geel Oe crctste ete ote eh 5 58, 64 Sparrow=bawke. oa. eceeie eels stele A TeNViniber: Wir emvarrateyvtetar tare or) ie 156 Swainson’s Buzzard.......... 28, 049) Wilson’s Sniperee ae -eeeeeee 36, 46 Parra way ales ea crteje velvet 33 “¢ Phalarope.. 34, 56, 121, 165 gs Clay-coloured):'):.. 147, 149) Wood Duck «- sinc). cer es «isnt 64 a IVECO, soseanaapene 171 Woodpecker, Golden-winged. 158,192 ue White-throated....... 190 Red-headed....... 112 ee Vesper, Western..... 171 ZOO © Gx PRTIUE LONE ssc. sits = avo = +s AIAG NOON Grey, Wolf ae. cae eee clair 86 Bean lae ition is\G wrelteic she USS Ui Pat tii cbc een RO sae.odor. cote. li Bem OANNAIMON sacs esis et Mossi zH|PNLOOSE;21,2, ct axel-vs aoe ree Wyss llylay See OBIA Zara. ecco clea 6 52 OAM OS; PUM as. 3.3 st citcioa oe erent reier te 109 Sita Oe eens oces cleats i ys 48, 124 Prairie Wolf ........ 40,7 79; 85, 120 (Chin oyna settee 5 Sto eeiee ae ON SL Si |pinabblesnakerya 5c ccseeeereee ener 95 ets Black- tailed A Sete a eer se US RUNK: 8). cracls n kre Ce 192 SOROS CO Bade Ome ones oe KY OH EVWolivierine:...- -iita acai eee Le ma Bahan OUR Dee OS ree 172, 187 ILLUSTRATIONS. SSS oe Colored Plate I.—Eggs of Golden Eagle, Peregrine, Red- tail Hawk, Pigeon Hawk, Sharp- shinned and Sparrow Hawks. — opp. Il.—Eggs of Knot, Phalaropes, Plovers, Avocet, Sandpipers, ete. —- opp. II1.—Eg. parte’s Gull, Turnstone Green-shank, es of Curlew, Ptarmigans, Bona- Yellow-shank, Grey Plover, etc. opp. IV.—Eggs of Iceland Falcon, Prairie Faleon, Swallow-tail Kite, European Merlin, Kestril, Osprey, etc. - - opp. V.—Eggs of Raven, Nutcracker, Grackles, Blackbirds, Longspurs, Larks, ete. opp. : VI.—Eges of Little Brown Crane, Whip- poor-will, Night-hawk, Bohemian PAGE 56 98 130 145 Waxwing, Pine Grosbeak, Great — Shrike, ete. - - - opp. 170 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE | 10 | Red Rock, Nipigon River Thunder Cape, Lake Superior.... 12) BomberdeyMeurony. ee as en 13 | Dake'of the Woods.............. 14 | Golden Eagle and Hyrie.......... 18 Kildeer and Wilson’s Phalarope.. 38 The Sportsman’s Paradise........ 41 Antelope Hunting..... ......... 50 MvocetanG@sNest)n 2.) j Ra hig In North-West Canada. 19 Out of a series of thirty eggs, selected from some fifty speci- mens that have passed through my hands these last five years, only four clutches can be called richly marked. Most of the spots and blotches are more or less obscure and apparently be- low the surface, showing various tints of purplish grey, drab, and pale brown. by the overlaying of the whitish calcare- ous matter—these four clutches may be described as fol- lows :— Clutch I—Two eggs, size 2.90x2.30 and 2.80x2.32, ground colour creamy white, freckled all over with pale brown and drab ; towards the small ends of the eggs are heavy daubs of deep purple grey, and on the top of those are blotches of chest- nut and sienna brown. This handsome clutch was taken in the mountains of Asia Minor, from a nest in a high cliff, on ‘April 10th, 1887. Clutch II.—Threeeggs, size 3.00x2.28, 2.95x2.24 and 2.80x2.13, ground colour clear white, with heavy spots and blotches of various shades of grey and dark brown; the ground colour is so clean and free of freckles, that the heavy blotches stand out very bold. This set was also taken in the mountains of Asia Minor, April 10th, 1887. Clutch II.—Two eggs, size 3.12x2.28 and 2.97x2.33, ground colour pinky cream, mottled all over with purple grey and pale brown, which almost conceals the ground colour. This clutch was taken near Sargent, California, April 16th, 1889, from a nest in a live oak tree, 35 feet from the ground. Clutch 1V.—Two eggs, size 2.82x2.14 and 2.90x2.03, ground colour greyish white, the eggs are streaked horizontally from the largest end to the middle with purple grey, on the top of this are spots and blotches of sienna brown, one of the eggs is very handsome. They were collected in Santa Clara Co., Cala., March 22nd, 1890, nest in a white oak tree 70 ft. high. Behind the Albion hotel at Winnipeg, the proprietor has a small menagerie. It contains several fine specimens of black bears, prairie and timber wolves, and different kinds of deer, all obtained within this district. 20 Bird-Nesting One striking feature in Winnipeg is the primitive clumsy- looking carts drawn by long-horned oxen, harnessed with buckskin. This isa strange sight to easterners. Here milk carts, farmers’ waggons, etc., are drawn by oxen, which are also used in the fields for ploughing instead of horses. In North-West Canada. aT CHAPTER V. AVING spent a day and night in viewing the sights of Winnipeg, the following afternoon found ; us seated in another car, and now for the last re (2% stage of our journey. Looking through the train <2, we find but few of our fellow passengers of yester- Ca day. Nearly everybody stops at Winnipeg for a longer to purchase supplies or materials for their new prairie homes. , we strike out at once upon a broad plain, or shorter time, some to remain permanently, others Leaving Winnipeg as level and green as a billiard table, extending miles to the north and west and bordered on the south by a line of trees marking the course of the Assiniboine river. This is not yet the prairie, but a great widening of the valleys of the Red and Assiniboine rivers which unite at Winnipeg. The plain is dotted with countless cattle, half hidden in the grass. The railway stretches away before us without a curve as far as the eye can reach, and the motion of the train is hardly felt as we fly along. A belt of almost unoccupied land surrounds Winnipeg, due to the fact that it is mostly held by specula- tors, and the few scattered farms are chiefly devoted to dairy products and cattle breeding. Beyond Poplar Point, farms begin to appear almost continuously, and for 150 miles the railway follows the course of the Assiniboine river. We are on the alert for the sight of birds, which now appear to be numerous. As we travel along we disturb the ducks from every slough; Franklin’s gulls and black terns are in sight most of the time, and sandpipers and snipe are seen on the margin of every small sheet of water, One of our fellow passengers, who came up with us from Toronto, asks us to have a game at checkers, to pass the time away, but we respectfully decline, informing him we are too much interested in the country. “Why,” says he, “I don’t 22 Bird-Nesting see anything to interest anybody, there’s nothing but a flat expanse of monotonous prairie, and I am sick of it already ; I don’t know how I shall stand two or three days of it.” We try to interest him in the birds to be seen from the car win- dow, but his admiration does not lie in this direction, so two of us leave him and go out and stand on the back platform of a car, and enjoy a rich cigar and the surroundings. Every prairie stream, or slough, has its brood of young ducks, just hatched and swimming about, while their mothers fly off on the approach of the train. ‘There were shovellers, ring-necked ducks, American widgeons, redheads, pochards and blue-winged teal, all easily recognized. Marsh harriers were plentiful, and one appeared in sight every few miles. An occasional short- eared owl would be flushed from the rushes of some slough. It was soon evident that the prairies swarmed with bird-hfe, and how eager we were to explore some of these sloughs. As we proceed westward, we imperceptibly reach higher ground, and the country is checkered with fields of green wheat, just a few inches high. Fifty-five miles from Winnipeg, we reach Portage-la-Prairie, noted for its big grain elevators and flour mills. From this place Lake Manitoba is reached. In the fall, ducks, geese and water birds congregate here in myriads. Lake Manitoba is about ten miles north of the railway track, and is bordered by a belt of forest inhabited with numerous bears, moose, elk and black-tailed deer. From Portage-la- Prairie a new railway reaches two hundred miles away to the north-west to Yorkton, which will take the naturalist or sportsman to the foot of the Riding and Duck Mountains and Beaver Hills. Here are found bears, moose, lynx and wolves in numbers. Near Yorkton is Crescent Lake, which swarms with bird-life, and from here last summer I received a fine collection of egos taken on the shores of Crescent Lake. The little brown crane breeds at Crescent Lake. I have two fine sets that were collected here last spring. The eggs of the little brown crane are large and handsome, they are at once distinguished from the whooping and sandhill crane by their smaller size, but are similar in colour and markings; their colour In North-West Canada. 23 is ashy yellow, drab-blotched and clouded, chiefly at the larger ends, with different shades of brown and purple grey. One set of two eggs collected at Crescent Lake on May 20th, 1890, measures 3.60x2.30 and 3.64x2.32. The nest was found ona sandy knoll in a marsh, and was a large structure of broken- down reeds and aquatic plants; the bird was flushed off the nest. Another set of two eggs in my collection from Crescent Lake only measure 3.56x2.28 and 3.59x2.30. They were col- lected on May 16th, 1890. Between Portage-la-Prairie and Brandon we pass many villages at distances of ten and twenty miles apart. After passing through a bushy district of scrub oak, with frequent ponds and small streams, alive with birds, the railway rises from Austin along a sandy slope to a plateau near the centre of which is situated Carberry, a fine district for the ornitholo- gist. From Sewell the railway descends again to the valley of the Assiniboine, and Brandon is reached. Next to Winnipeg, Brandon is the largest town in the North-West, with a popu- lation of 5000. The town is beautifully situated on high ground and overlooks the valley of the Assiniboine river. In the Ornithologist and Oologist for July, 1885, published by F. B. Webster, are notes on the birds found around Brandon by the late T. B. Wood. Mr. Wood was an enthusiastic nat- uralist, and unfortunately fell a victim in the cause of his favourite pursuit. One day, late in October, 1883, having shot a rare duck in a slough, he waded into the water up to his waist to get the bird, and thereby contracted a severe cold which resulted in his death. Mr. Wood was an Englishman, from Manchester, and only twenty-six years of age when he died. His notes were sent to his friend, T. H. Nelson, in Eng- land, who communicated them to the Zoologist. It was through reading his notes that I was prompted to visit the North-West; his field notes on the birds of this district are— highly interesting. Leaving Brandon, we have fairly reached the first of the great prairie steppes that rise one after the other at long in- tervals to the Rocky mountains, and now we are on the real 24 Bird-Nesting prairie, not the monotonous, uninteresting plain your imagina- tion has pictured, but a great billowy ocean of grass and flowers, now swelling into low hills, again dropping into broad basins with gleaming ponds, and broken here and there by valleys and by irregular lines of trees marking the water- courses. The horizon only limits the view, and the short, sweet grass is studded with brilliant flowers; every minute or two prairie chickens and plover rise from the grass, startled by the passing train. Ducks of many kinds are seen about the frequent ponds, together with Canada geese and occasion- ally cranes and pelicans. The sun is setting, and towards the north the horizon is a long black line of smoke. On enquiry from the railway guard we are informed that “it is a prairie fire.” As it approaches, we can see the fierce blazes running along as fast as the train ; as it gets darker, the sight becomes fearfully grand, for miles to the north the prairie is illumin- ated by the fierce, raging fire, but as the wind is blowing from us the fire recedes and we are not sorry at leaving it behind. It is now dark and we retire to the dining-car and indulge in a supper of bottled ale, crackers, butter and cheese. A short time afterwards we turn into our bunks and instruct the rail- way guard to wake us up before we reach Regina in the morning. In North-West Canada. 25 CHAPTER VI. EXT morning I was wakened by the guard pulling me, and calling out, “It’s five o'clock, sir, Regina next station.” I was soon up and washed and SS dressed. At Regina, my Scotch companions, just out from Scotland, got off the train; they were going to take up farms a few miles south of Regina. Regina is the capital of Assiniboia and the distributing point for the country far north and south. A railway extends northward to Long Lake, beyond the Qu’Appelle river, and now almost reaches Battleford, on the North Saskatchewan. | Regina is the headquarters of the North-West Mounted Police. The Mounted Police is a military organization num- bering 1,000 men, who are stationed at intervals over the North-West to look after the Indians and preserve order gen- erally. Along the sides of the railway track about Regina are numerous Indian tepees, and Indians are seen driving their herds of ponies. They look very picturesque in their coloured garments, and we begin to realize that we are in a wild country and in the midst of the home of the red man , however, they live very peaceful lives, but are very indolent and don’t like much work ; the squaws do all the work, while the bucks lie around and smoke and talk. The Mounted Police board the train at Regina and examine all the baggage to see if any of the passengers have whiskey. They are very strict, for the Indians are fond of fire-water and are dangerous when they get it. A few miles north of Regina is Long Lake, a rendevouz for a great variety of water fowl, and a place I intended visiting, but did not manage it as my time was devoted to exploring the region about Moosejaw and Rush Lake. However, I hope to explore Long Lake on some future trip. Forty miles beyond Regina we reach Moosejaw, which is 400 26 Bird-Nesting miles from Winnipeg. This was my destination. I was glad to get out of the trai. Many Indians came from their camps to meet the trains, and offer for sale buffalo horns, which they collect on the prairies and polish them. I bought a fine pair for seventy-five cents. I secured a comfortable room at the station, and before breakfast I went out to view the neighbor- hood to see what the prospects were for collecting specimens. The name Moosejaw is an abridgement of the Indian name, which, literally translated, is “the-creek-where-the-white-man- mended-the-cart-with-a-moose-jaw-bone.” Moosejaw is a small market town with a population of 600. Running through Moosejaw is a creek which empties itself into the Qu’ Appelle river. To the south of Moosejaw the creek runs through some swampy ponds, fringed with willow bushes, and I soon found out that this was a paradise for birds. It was early morning, and the place was alive with curlews, godwits, killdeers and other birds that had come down from the high prairies to feed. Beyond the ponds the creek drains a deep wooded valley. This is the only place for miles around where trees grow, and consequently swarmed with bird-life. Arctic towhees and vireos were numerous, also warblers and thrushes were singing merrily. I hastened back to breakfast, satisfied that I had struck a good collecting ground. Breakfast over, I put on my long rubber boots and went to explore the ponds south-east of Moosejaw. The curlews and godwits had left, but killdeers were very numerous, and there were several pairs of those handsome birds, the Wilson’s Phalarope. Black terns were numerous, and as I approached began to fly around screaming, so I concluded they had eggs and nests on some of the numerous islands fringed with rushes and willows. On the far side of the ponds are clusters of bushes, and on ap- proaching, numerous bronzed grackles appeared and became noisy. It did not take me long to find a number of their nests; they were bulky structures made of twigs, roots and grasses mixed with mud and lined with dry grass, and every bush contained from one to three nests. I had soon a number of fine sets, and as they were the first I had ever taken of this In North-West Canada. Dal species, they were greatly appreciated, although for two weeks afterwards I found them so common that I could have col- lected hundreds of their eggs, had I wished. Many of the nests contained young birds, as the grackle is one of the early breeders ; they begin to lay in this district about the second week in May, and eggs can be found up to the middle of June. The eggs of the bronzed grackle are very handsome, and a large series make a fine display, and they vary greatly in colour; some have a pale green or blue ground colour, with irregular lines, dots, scrawls and blotches distributed over the surface, others have an olive green ground, mottled with brown of various shades, in some the ground is almost concealed by the numerous markings. Their average size is 1.20x.80, and from four to six eggs were found in each nest. I collected a fine series, and carefully packing them I proceeded along the far side of the ponds up the valley. Rose-bushes and honey- suckle were in full bloom, and sent forth a delicious perfume. The air smelt fresh and sweet, and the morning air was so bracing, it was a pleasant change after being caged in a railway train for nearly a week. Carolina crakes, American widgeons and shovellers were numerous on the ponds, and I began to wonder if I should be able to procure a boat to ex- amine the numerous islands. I saw many nests of king birds, and red-winged starlings in the bushes on the islands, but could not reach them. My next find was a cat-bird’s nest and five eggs, and a robin’s nest with eggs. A waxwing flew from a tree close by, but I could not make out whether it was the Bohemian waxwing, or only the cedar bird, as I soon lost sight of it. I donot think the Bohemian waxwing is found so far south in summer, although a native sportsman of Moose- jaw afterwards informed me that he has shot this species in the fall and winter, when they appear in flocks. They breed in Alaska, and may do so further south. Thirty years ago, the eggs of the Bohemian waxwing were unknown. The late Mr. Wolley was the first to discover them in Lapland, in 1856. Duplicates from his collection were sold at twenty-five dollars each. Eggs of this species are still rare in collections. 28 Bird-Nesting This past five years I have received a number of sets from Lapland. Two clutches of five eggs and one of four in my collection, were collected in Lapland, June 20th, 1888. The nests consisted of twigs, roots and grasses, built in low trees. The eggs are like those of the cedar bird in colour and mark- ings, but are considerably larger, averaging 95x65. A clutch of four eggs that were collected for me in Finnland, June 20th, 1885, are now in the collection of Chas. E. Doe, of Pro- vidence. The eggs measure 1x:70, .99x70, .95x69, .93x.68. One of the commonest birds in Moosejaw valley is the arctic towhee, I could hear several calling at once, every time I visited this valley, their nests are hard to find, however. In passing some shrubbery I flushed one from amongst the roots, and there found a nest built flush with the ground. It was made of dried grass, similar to the eastern towhee bunting ; it contained four eggs of a greenish white ground colour, freck- led with reddish brown. Moosejaw creek is well wooded with small elms, oaks and other trees, and has a thick undergrowth of brushwood along its banks. Nearly every tree of size contains a hawk’s nest or that of an owl. I was surprised to find so many hawks’ nests in such a small area, but it is easily accounted for, because the conveniences for nesting in this district are limited to these narrow valleys. There were always several hawks to be seen hovering over the valley, and Swainson’s buzzard was the most plentiful. One flopped off a nest on my ap- proach, and I was soon up the tree peeping over the edge of the nest, and was delighted to find it contained two eggs; they were white, blotched with reddish brown, and are smaller than the eggs of the red-tail hawk. I was on the wrong side of the stream for the hawks’ nests, so I climbed up the steep banks of the valley and reached the high prairie south of Moosejaw. Here field plovers and killdeers were plentiful, but I did not find their nests. The prairies around Moosejaw are very hilly, and this is what they call the rolling prairie. With the exception of the small trees growing at the bottom of Moose- jaw creek, the country is treeless from Regina west to the Cypress hills, a distance of 200 miles. The hilly prairie is In North-West Canada. 29 covered with short buffalo grass, and the county has a desolate, barren look. The ground is undermined with gopher holes, and the bones and skulls of buffalo are scattered in all direc- tions over the prairie. The dark clouds that had been threat- ening for some time now broke and it began to rain, so I de- scended into the valley. Asit was near twelve o'clock, I made. my way to the station and found dinner ready, to which my keen appetite did justice. After dinner, as the rain abated somewhat, I put on my waterproof coat and made my way to the ponds once more, and this time tried the north side, here I found a raft and was soon on it and paddling towards the islands where the black terns were noisy. On arriving there I was surprised to find no eggs, but it was evidently too early, for ten days after that I found black terns just beginning to lay at Long Lake in Manitoba. The islands were fringed with rushes, and I found several nests of the red-winged starling containing four and five eggs each ; the nests were attached to several stems of rushes, were cup-shaped and made of dry grasses. I also found a nest of rusty grackle ready to receive eggs, it was made of dry grass on the ground on one of the islands. Wilson’s Phalaropes were numerous, and I worked hard to find their nests without success. Every willow bush growing out of the water contained one or more nests of bronzed grackle or kingbird, but it was too early, for eggs of the latter, as the kingbird 1s a late breeder and seldom has eggs before the middle of June. Jumping from the raft on to the island, I almost trod upon a large bird which stumbled off and alighted in the water some distance away; it gave me a sudden start, as birds do when they fly up right under one’s feet. In a tuft of long grass was a cosy nest of down and ten buffy eggs of the blue-winged teal. They were securely packed along with the other nests and egos. In trying to jump from one island to another, I almost stepped backwards on a nest of four handsome eggs of the killdeer. I happened to see the eggs in looking behind me, previous to making the jump. The nest of the killdeer is simply a depression in the sand, lined with a few blades of 30 Bird-Nesting grass and bits of rushes ; the eggs were clay-coloured, spotted and streaked with black. A marbled godwit evidently had a nest close by, but I could not find it. There was a strong wind blowing, and I could not go back with the raft to the place I got it from, as the wind carried me over to the south side, so I worked my way round the islands where I found several other nests of red-winged starlings, grackles and other com- mon birds. As it was nearly five o'clock and my clothes were pretty damp, I directed my steps towards Moosejaw, intending the following morning to come back for the raft. After a wash and change of clothes, boots and stockings, I found sup- per was ready. In the evening I visited the house of a native sportsman, to try and learn if there were any marshes around Moosejaw, and he directed me to one five miles north-east of Moosejaw, so I resolved that I would visit this place on the morrow. In North-West Canada. 31 CHAPTER VII. EXT morning I was awake early and out before breakfast. I crossed the bridge which spans Moosejaw creek and followed the stream west- ward. Marbled godwits were plentiful, but their nests were hard to find. A pair were exceedingly noisy and began to fly round in circles, screaming; as I knew they had a nest near, I searched the spot, but without success, so | went away some distance and lay down on the grass. Waiting ten minutes to allow the birds to settle, I advanced suddenly to the spot where I expected the nest would be found, and this time the bird got up and ran along the ground for twenty yards, and then rose into the air screaming. I took no notice of the bird, but kept my eyes on the spot from which it rose, and advancing there I found the nest and four eggs. The nest was simply a depression in the ground, about the size of a saucer, and lined with grass and bits of rushes. The eggs were olive drab, spotted with vari- ous shades of brown and purple grey undermarkings, and are similar to those of the European black-tailed godwit in size and colour. Along the banks of Moosejaw creek grow short shrubs, and here I flushed several sharp-tailed grouse; one flew up sud- denly before my feet with a whir-whir, and I came near step- ping on its nest and ten egos. The nest was a hollow in the ground lined with feathers, and the eggs were tawny buff, speckled with fine spots of brown. The sharp-tailed grouse is a very close sitter, and will almost suffer herself to be trod on before she will leave her nest. This species is resident in Assiniboia and Manitoba throughout the winter, when they retire to the blufts and feed on the buds of the trees, and at night they dive down into the soft snow drifts for warmth and shelter. Many are killed by wolves and foxes, and not a 32 Bird-Nesting few get imprisoned by the surface of the snow hardening during the night, for they bury themselves about a foot deep. Packing the eggs, I followed the course of the stream for a mile or so. Something rustling amongst the grass was mak- ing for the water, and two or three steps further I saw it was a large snake; it dived into the water, but I was too quick for him, two or three blows on the head from my stick caused him to stretch out on the surface of the water lifeless. A few steps further I disturbed another snake, and, as they seemed to be numerous along the banks of this stream, I crossed over and returned to Moosejaw and had breakfast. Breakfast over, I took my gun, and filling my belt with cartridges, and getting a supply of provisions for the day, I hired a horse and buggy and drove over the hilly prairies to the slough some miles to the north-east of Moosejaw. On the way I disturbed numerous McCown’s longspurs from the grass, but could not find their nests. I soon found it would be a difficult matter to look for nests, as the horse was too fresh and had evidently not been out for some days. Kil- deers, Bartram’s sandpipers and willets were plentiful, but the latter are so wary it is no easy matter to find their nests. It took me some time to find the slough. At last I reached the summit of the elevated ridge of prairie, and scanning the surrounding country, I saw in the distance a green flat patch about three miles long by two broad, it looked lke an exten- sive corn field with the green wheat about a foot high ; I could see no signs of water, but on reaching the slough I found it covered with green rushes, which hid the surface of the water. I secured the horse’s head to a rope I had brought along with me and to the other end I had attached an iron weight, as there were no trees nor fence to which I could tie the horse. I then took my gun and having put on my rubber boots I waded amongst the rushes. The place swarmed with birds; mallards, shovellers, blue-winged teals, and scaup ducks were plentiful, sowere killdeers, Bartram’s sandpipers and Wilsons’ phalaropes. There were hundreds of yellow-headed blackbirds, whose noisy chatter mingled with quacking of the ducks and the cries of In North-West Canada. Oo: ww the willets and killdeers. A short distance away on the mar- gin of the slough, I saw a willet and a pair of phalaropes, and approaching cautiously I raised my gun, bang—and the willet dropped. He was a handsome specimen and I put him into the buggy and then followed up the phalaropes which had settled further on. Istartled a small bird from the dry ground on the margin of the slough, and found a nest of five eggs. The eggs were unknown to me; they resembled eggs of the grass finch but were smaller. I afterwards found out they were eggs of that rare bird, Baird’s sparrow (ammodramus Bairdii). I left the egos in the nest, and placing a piece of wood near by as a mark; I went away in hopes the bird would return so that I could shoot her to enable me to identify the eggs. A1- though I stayed away twenty minutes before returning, I did not see any signs of the bird, so I took the nest and the eggs. The nest is made of dried grass and was built on the ground after the manner of the song and Savannah sparrows. The egos are greyish white, spotted and blotched with various shades of brown, and measure 0.78x0.60. This set was taken on 8th June, and they were quite fresh. On the 14th of June I found another nest of Baird’s sparrow on the prairie south of Rush Lake; it contained three eggs, and incubation was far advanced,—the nest was made of grasses and on the ground. These eggs were greyish white, finely spotted with dark brown, and they have a few hair lines of brown after the fashion of McCown’s longspur, but the eggs are larger than those of McCown’s longspur. A pair of yellowshanks evidently had a nest close by, so I set to work and searched diligently for over half an hour without any success, so I marked down the spot intending to return later. On the north side of the slough the ground rises on a gentle slope, and here the grass grew in tussocks. I flushed a Wilson’s phalarope and soon found its nest and four eges well concealed in a tuft of grass, the nest consisting of bits of rushes. The male bird alone undertakes the incubation and when disturbed from the nest, flutters along the ground as if winged or wounded, and as you stoop to pick him up he flutters away further and then rising in the air, be- el 34 B ird-Nest / Wf gins to fly over your head, uttering a soft note, something like the coo of a dove. Wilson’s phalaropes are handsome birds and the largest of the three species. They inhabit the prairies from Winnipeg to the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains, and I found them breeding at every place I stopped at between Winnipeg and Rush Lake. I had excellent opportunities of studying their habits, and I consider this the most interesting species of the entire group of waders. As a rule, in bird life, the males are larger than the females and their plumage more attractive, but in the case of Wilson’s phalarope it is just the reverse; the females are much larger than the males and their plumage is far brighter. I have several specimens on the table before me, and the adult female may be described as follows: Fore- head and crown, bluish silvery grey, changing into a white band down the middle of the back of the neck. From the base of the bill, across the eye and down the side of the neck, is a black stripe, changing gradually in the lower portion of the neek and across the back, into rich, dark chestnut; a short white bar over lores and eyes; chin, cheeks and under parts of the body, pure snowy white: fore-neck and chest, softy buffy cinnamon; wings, dusky brown, and middle of the back, plumbeous grey. The adult male is smaller and much duller in colour than the female, with the beautiful tints and pattern of the female faintly indicated. These birds are lobe-footed like the coot, and are good swimmers. They surpass all other waders in ease and variety of movement, and in grace and elegance of form, and beauty of plumage. The first week in June they begin to build their nests, usually not far from the margin of some lake or slough: the nests are always deep cup- shaped hollows in the centre of a tuft of grass, and are usually well concealed. The nest is lined with bits of grass or drift rushes. They are generally found by flushing the male off the nest, for after the female has laid the full complement of egos, she leaves them, and the male alone attends to the duties of incubation, and hatches the eggs. When the young leave the shells they can soon run about, and are then fed by both In North-West Canada. 25 of the old birds. The male bird is a very close sitter, and wall almost sufter himself to be trodden upon before he will leave the nest, then he flutters along in front of one’s feet for some dis- tance as if wounded, making a soft, squeaking noise : he then rises in the air and is joined by the female, who has been feeding in some damp spot not far off, they then fly around in circles, and are sometimes joined: by two or three other phalaropes. Most sandpipers or waders have a loud whistle but the phalarope is a very quiet bird, and it has only one soft note, which can be heard only close to it. It sounds some- thing like the coo of a dove, or the bark of a large dog a long way off. This is the only note I ever heard them utter, be- sides the squeak they make when frightened off the nest. When feeding or swimming about the sloughs they are very tame, and will allow you to approach within five or six yards before taking flight or running further away. I collected a fine series of eggs of the Wilson's phalarope. They are almost as large as eges of the spotted sandpiper, and average 1.25x0.90. The ground colour varies from pale clay to brownish drab, and is heavily overlaid with spots, blotches and scratches of brown and black, reminding one of the ptarmigan’s egg in style of colouring. They have the power to remove their eggs, if they have been handled. On June the 10th, I found a nest of Wilson’s phalarope, at Rush Lake, it contained one egg; this eg@ | examined, and then put it back into the nest, intending to call a few days later for the full set. I put some stones near the nest so as to be able to find it again. Next day I visited the nest and found the ege had gone. About thirty feet away I found another nest and two eggs, one of them I recognized as the egg I had handled the day before, the bird evidently had removed the ege to this nest and laid another one to it. On the high ground above the slough a number of Willet’s and Bartrain’s sand- pipers had their nests. The Willets were very wary, but the field-plovers were excessively tame, and when disturbed would get up off their nests and walk slowly through the grass. The Bartram’s sandpiper, also called field plover and upland 36 Bird-Nesting plover, is a slender, graceful bird ; when disturbed they seldom take flight, but walk or run along a few yards in front of the intruder. In driving over the prairie I almost ran over several, for they do not run out of the way, until the horse is nearly upon them. They keep close together in pairs, and ramble through the grass, their long necks and heads just appearing over the top of the scanty herbage. They have a soft mellow whistle, and are called “ Quaily” by the natives, as their whistle is supposed to resemble this word. The nests are simply depressions in the ground, lined with a few blades of grass. T have a series of one hundred eggs before me, consisting of twenty-five sets, the number of eggs to a clutch is invariably four, and theyare very uniform in size, shape and colour. “Tne egos are not so pyriform or pointed as those of other plovers and sandpipers. They average about 1.75x1.28. The ground colour is pale clay, sometimes light drab or deep buff, spotted all over and thicker towards the larger end, with umber brown, they also have numerous dark, purplish-grey blotches, and paler grey shell-markings. The plumage of both sexes is very similar. As it was dinner time, I went back to the horse and bugey, and put the eggs and birds I had collected at the bottom of the buggy, and loosened the horse so that he could feed on the grass. After having some lunch I waded into the s!ough and shot several yellow-headed blackbirds. They are handsome birds, the head, neck and breast is a brilhant orange, which stands out well against the rest of the plumage which is black, except the wings, which are barred with white. I did not find any of their nests; they are late breeders, and I did not collect any eggs of this species until June 19th. A pair of mallard ducks had a brood of young, and so had several shoveller ducks. On the margin of the slough a snipe rose up suddenly and darted away to the other side of the slough. It took me some time to find its nest, which was well con- cealed among the tufts of marsh grass. This nest of Wilson's snipe was made in the centre of a tuft of grass, and consisted In North-West Canada. a7 of a circular depression in the ground, lined with bits of rushes. The eggs were four in number, olive greenish brown, blotched and spotted with dark brown and purplish-grey, and measure about 1.55x1.07. Wilson’s snipe is not very numerous either in Manitoba or Assiniboia; I only found a thin sprinkling of these birds be- tween Winnipeg and Rush Lake, they became scarcer on ap- proaching the south, towards the United States boundary, and are more frequent towards the Saskatchewan region of the north. The male Wilson’s snipe has the same habit as the European snipe of flying in circles high in the air, and drop- ping down suddenly a few yards with outstretched wings, which cause a drumming noise. I could almost fancy I was on some of the Yorkshire moors in England, or on Strens- all common, near York, where I used to find numerous nests and egos of the snipe, and have often lain on the ground and watched and listened to the snipes drumming high in the air. The trumpeter swan nests on the prairies north of Moosejaw, at Buttalo Lake: they are early breeders; a set of five eggs in my collection were taken on April 7th, 1891; another set of two eggs were taken on the same day. The nests were de- scribed as being large structures, three feet in diameter, and composed of sods, grass and rushes, the centres were lined with feathers and down. The eggs are yellowish white, and average 4.25x2.60. As the horse began to get restless, I drove round to the north of the slough. Here I found many species of cucks, and numerous Wilson’s phalaropes, kildeers and Bar- tram’s sandpipers. The nests of these three species were found some distance from the water's edge, upon the dry prairie.. The kildeer is a noisy, wary bird, and is never flushed off the nest, like the field plover and Wilson's phal- arope. As soon as their nesting quarter is approached, some male bird, who is on the look out, flies toward the intruder and begins calling out “'Tewitt,” and the cry is very similar to that of the European lapwing plover, being somewhat plaintive and sad; all the kildeers in the immediate neigh- bourhood then leave their nests and begin to fly in the air, 35 Bird-Nestiig calling out “'Tewitt,” and they do not settle down until the in- truder has retired to a considerable distance. These birds are very annoying, for they alarm the whole neighbourhood with their cries, which cause many of the birds to leave their nests and thus spoils the collector’s chances of flushing other birds off their nests. The egos of the kildeer are rather handsome, and a large series makes a fine display. The ground colour is usually clay, sometimes drab, thickly spotted and blotched with black and grey shell markings; some clutches have a scratchy pattern of lines and spots. In size they average 1.53x1.10. My next find was a nest and four eges of the yellowshank, the nest consisting of a saucer-shaped hollow in the ground, lined with grass, after the fashion of other plovers. The eggs are smaller and not so broad as those of the Bar- tram’s sandpiper, and are more pointed and pyriform. The ground colour is like some specimens of the field plover, but the markings are bolder. The eggs have a butfy clay ground, and are thickly spotted with various shades of brown, with. numerous shell markings of grey. Like the Wilson's snipe, the yellowlegs are not numerous on the prairies of Manitoba and Assiniboia; both species become more abundant northward towards the Saskatchewan region. Yellowlegs are more numerous at Bittern Lake, near Edmond- ton, and are common in the neighbourhood of Little Slave Lake. It was now five o'clock, and as my horse was getting restless, and kept turning his head homeward, and moving off of his own accord, I concluded to leave this charming spot and return to Moosejaw. But just then a couple of curlews arose, sor left the horse and buggy and went after them. Bang went the gun, but it was a miss this time, and the curlews flew away to some distance. I was searching the spot for their nest, when, looking up I beheld the horse and bugey going at a steady pace across the prairie. I at once gave chase, calling out, “ whow, whow,” as I ran along, but the horse took no notice, but kept on at a steady trot. After running quarter of a mile he began to gain on me, and I was almost out of breath running and calling on him to stop, and I found KILDEER PLOVER & NEST. rms RR Hf In North-West Canada. 39 it Was no joke running in long rubber boots and carrying a gun and collecting boxes. After running half a mile I was plaved out, and began to think matters were getting serious. I did not like the prospect of having to walk seven miles back to Moosejaw, and then I was afraid the horse would get lost and fall into the hands of Indians. I also knew he had to cross some deep valleys in the direction he was going, and I was afraid he might upset the buggy and take fright, or he might wander until he came to the railway track, and a vivid idea of a railway accident resulting, crossed my mind, but I could run no farther, and so had to content myself with walk- ing, and the horse and buggy were now nearly two miles away: he was going westward towards an elevated ridge of the prairie, and Moosejaw lay to the south-west. I knew if he got over the top of that ridge of prairie he would fall into the hands of Indians, and I should probably never see him again. The Indians would take care of him after that. I began to despair, and wondered what was the value of the horse and buggy, and what I should say to the owner when I got back to Moosejaw. On reaching the foot of the ridge the horse did not ascend, but turned southward and began to walk along the foot of it. So I gained courage and began to run again; the ridge was a half circle in shape, so I took a short cut across the prairie, in the direction the horse’ was heading for, and in twenty minutes I nearly got up to him, when he saw me com- ing, and the rascal set off running again. Some distance away was an old, empty barn, and the horse ran to this place and then came toa halt. I ran along, keeping the barn between the horse and myself so that he could not see me coming, and in getting up to the barn, I ran out from behind and seized him by the rem. Looking into the buggy, I saw my birds had gone, they had got shaken out, many of the eggs I found broken, and some missing altogether. You can judge how disappointed I was. I got into the bugey and drove back two miles in the hopes of finding the birds laid on the prairie, but I did not find a single specimen, so I returned to Moosejaw and consoled myself with the thoughts that matters might have 40 Bird-Nesting been worse. I passed a camp of Indians on my way to Moose- jaw. Soon the housetops in Moosejaw began to appear and I drove down into the valley, and delivered the horse to its owner, who complained about the splashboard being bent, but I did not tell him of my adventure. After enjoying a wash and a good supper, I visited the ponds near Moosejaw, and flushed a Wilson’s phalarope from its nest and three eggs. These I left until the following morning. I rambled around the ponds until it was nearly dark, and then returned to the station house, tired with my day’s work. e The prairie grasses grow close and sweet } Where the prong-horn is bounding wild and fleet. And the sod is worn in deep-lined maze With the mighty bison’s forsaken ways. Bones of the race that was swept away Await ’mid th« herbage their slow decay, Butthebleachingskulland the mould’ring horn, To tell of the herds by these pastures borne— Ghastly tokens—spread o’er the land To prove the work of the butcher’s hand. But sense prevailed in the time of need, And fettered the bloody hands of greed, Ere the nobler quarries of hunters aim Were swept for aye from their native plain. The elk still leads his stately bands, And the moose calls loud in the forest-lands, And the shore oi each lake and streamlet clear Is deeply trod by the herding deer, And the mink and otter and beaver play Where the streams flow down on their devious way. Far ou the prairie’s unmeasured field, Lakes unnumbered are bright revealed, And the air is filled with rush of wing, Where the myriad wild fowl wheel and swing. Westward majestic Rockies pile Their mighty barriers mile on mile, Where grizzly and goat and mountain sheep Roam at will o’er ravine and steep. Head, horn, and skin—each a matchless prize, But gained in this Sportsman’s Paradise. In North-West Canada. Al CHAPTER VIII. WK UNE 9th.—This morning I was out before break- ) fast and visited the nest of Wilson's phalarope I had found the night previous, which now contained four egos. It was a handsome clutch; the mark- ings were so heavy that they almost concealed the fa ground colour. I examined the nest of rusty grackle found some days previously, but it was still empty; also took several sets of red-winged starling and then hastened back to Moosejaw, as I was going to leave this place for Rush Lake. After breakfast, at 7:30 a.m., the train from Winnipeg was seen approaching, and a few minutes later I was on my way to Rush Lake. On leaving Moosejaw we commence the ascent of another prairie steppe, called the Missouri Coteau. We have now reached the end of the continuous settlements, and from here to the Rocky mountains we shall only find the pioneer farmers in groups, here and there, of three or four houses. As we ascend the Missouri Coteau the country be- comes very hilly, and is studded with numerous lakes and ponds. We shall see no trees for over one hundred miles, not even a bush, and without them the short buffalo grass gives the country a barren, desolate look: but the land is not bar- ren, as the occasional station gardens testify, with their won- derful growth of cereals and vegetables. There is a flutter of excitement among the passengers and a rush to the windows—Antelopes! We shall see them fre- quently now, as we are going through the cream of the ante- lope country. The beautiful antelope bounds away over the hilly prairie on the approach of the train, and we watch the white tuft which serves him for a tail until it disappears in the distance. The country is reticulated with buffalo trails, and pitted with their circular-shaped wallows. Their white bones are plentiful on the prairies, and at Parkbeg, along the 42 Bird-Nesting side of the railway track, were two great piles of buffalo skulls and horns: there must have been several hundreds of them, and they were all sizes, from that of the largest bull to those of the smallest calves. We are now entering a paradise for sportsmen. ‘The lakes become numerous; some are Salt, some are alkaline, and others are clear and fresh. Wild geese become very plentiful, so do ducks of many species; and gulls, terns, plovers, sandpipers, and avosets are common. Waterfowl blacken the surface of the lakes, and long, white lines of pelicans disport themselves along the shores, and we hear the notes and cries of many strange birds. At Chaplin we come to one of the old wives’ lakes, which are extensive bodies of water having no outlet, and are consequently alkaline. At Morse, we pass another large lake which swarms with gulls, and seventeen miles further Rush Lake appears in sight—this being my destina- tion. We run along the side of the lake for two miles and then the train comes to a standstill at the small platform, and I was the only passenger to alight The train moves off and resumes its course, and will continue to do so for another thousand miles yet until Vancouver is reached. The journey from Montreal to Vancouver by the Canadian Pacitic railway takes tive days and eighteen hours, and it is surprising how punctual the trains are, considering the long journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific. After the train had moved off, the station master came up to me and enquired, “ What has brought you to this city 7” 1 soon imformed him, and he expressed himself pleased to have my company for a few days, as he leads a lonely and monotonous life out here; he was the only hand at the station, and was station master, telegraph opera- tor, baggage man and everything else. Behind the station was a single house, where, | was informed. I should be able to secure a room and meals. I soon found out that my newly made friend was a sportsman who had travelled all through the Saskatchewan region and understood the Indian language. He was well acquainted with the district around Rush Lake for miles, and he told me that after dinner he would take me In North-West Canada. 43 to several ducks’ nests he knew of. As it was twelve o'clock, we went to the house in the rear, when I was introduced to the landlady as a naturalist who had come all the way from Toronto to explore the regions around here. Dinner over, the station master telegraphed to Moosejaw to enquire if any freight trains were expected to pass through Rush Lake, and as none were coming through that afternoon he got permis- sion for a few hours’ absence, so, shouldering our guns, we crossed over the railway track and reached the banks of a stream that runs into the lake, we were joined by his faithful setter dog who soon flushed a male shoveller duck: as he rose, my companion took aim and the duck dropped with a thud to the ground. He was a handsome specimen, with his bright, attractive plumage, and I wrapped him up and covered him with grass so that he could not be carried off by hawks: we left him, intending to comme back the same way on our return. We found the creek alive with broods of young ducks : there were shovellers, mallards, scaups, canvas backs, and teals. Streams in Canada are invariably called creeks, and must not be confounded with the English meaning of the word creek. In England a ereek signifies a small bay or inlet, but in Can- ada a creek is a stream. My English readers must also not get confounded over the name “bluff” In England the name “bluff” is always applied to a rocky headland or steep bank overhanging the sea or river: on the prairies, a “ bluff’ means an isolated cluster of trees, and the word “slough” is the name of a wet, marshy spot, or shallow pond. The creek at Rush Lake is a sluggish stream, three feet deep and about twelve feet wide, and winds its serpentine course from the station for two miles, and then empties itself imto the lake. The sides of the creek are fringed with rushes and tall grass, offermg good shelter for ducks and other waterfowl. On our way we came to a small boat, and my companion, Macdonald, advised me to cross to the other side of the creek and he would walk along one side while I examined the other, so I stepped into the boat and pushed it across the stream. Then we began to search in earnest and soon found the place alive AA. Bird-Nesti ng with young ducks. The old birds were very noisy and flew around quacking, and the young ones took to the centre of the stream. I found I was rather late for ducks’ eggs, and Macdonald informed me that had I been there five weeks earlier I could have collected scores of ducks’ eggs had I wished. Walking through the long grass, I flushed a female shovel- ler duck and found its beautiful nest of down and ten fresh eggs. The nest consisted of a hollow scooped out of the ground, and inside the hollow was built a compact nest of down: the top of the nest was flush with the surface of the ground. The egos are a greyish buff and average in size, 2.05x1.45. The shoveller breeds in Dakota. I have a clutch of ten eggs that were taken in Miner County, June Ist, 1890, and another set of eleven eggs that were taken on May 11th, 1890. I found the shoveller to be one of the commonest ducks in the North-West. I took the nest and eggs, and had proceeded only a short distance, when we flushed a canvas-back from its nest of eight egos. The nest was well concealed in a cluster of rushes, and also consisted of a depression in the ground, lined with feather and down. The eggs are rather large, averaging, 2.40x1.70, and are a pale greenish buff color. Macdonald soon afterwards shot the male canvas-back, he also shot a coot and a lesser scaup duck. A large black bird came flying towards us, and it turned out to be a turkey vulture; they were common in this district, and I saw them every day while I stayed at Rush Lake. They were very tame and are never molested; they come around the station house and pick up bones or any re- fuse that is thrown out. I was surprised to find the turkey vulture so far north, as I had always considered it a southern species, but my companion informed me they visited Rush Lake every spring and remain until late in the autumn. The flight of this bird is very graceful, and I was never tired of watching its various aerial evolutions. The setter dog had evidently found something in a cluster of rushes, when sud- denly a short-eared owl flew up, bang went the gun, and the owl fell lifeless to the ground. On reaching the rushes, we In North-West Canada. Ad found its nest and six white eggs The nest was a small heap of rushes about a foot high, and the eggs rested in a cavity at the top lined with feathers. I found the short-eared owl the most plentiful of the family, and they were found breeding at most of the places I visited between Winnipeg and Rush Lake. I was rather late, however, for their eggs, as they com- mence to lay about the middle of May. On May 17th one of my collectors took a clutch of five, and another of seven eggs, south of Oak Lake, Manitoba. Another of my collectors took a clutch of eight eggs on May 24th, 1891, and another clutch of five egos on May 28th, 1891, in South Dakota. All these nests were found on the ground, and were composed of rushes and grass; on the top of the nests were slight depressions, lined with a few feathers and fine grass. I have a series of forty egos of the short-eared owl, and they can be easily distinguish- ed from those of the long-eared species by their smaller size. They average 1.58x1.20. Dr. Coues in his book, “ Birds of the North-West,” says, “I am unable to appreciate any constant or tangible differences between the European and the Ameri- ean bird.” We had now arrived at the lake, but could not reach the water as it had recently dried up considerably owing to the hot weather, and had left a bed of soft mud some fifty feet in width. On this track of mud numerous avosets, godwits, willets, kildeers, gulls and other birds were feeding. Macdonald pointed out to me a sandy island, from which a clutch of five egos of the Canada goose had been taken three weeks previ- ously, so I waded out some distance and examined the nest; it was simply a circular hole in the sand lined with feathers and down. I found it a difficult task returning, and was tired out by the time I reached the dry land; the mud accumulated on my rubber boots up to my knees to such an extent that I had some difficulty in raising my feet, and it took some time be- fore I could clean the stuff off. Rush Lake is about seven miles long and four miles wide. To the west of it are hundreds of acres of marsh land covered with tall rushes, hence its name Rush Lake. We were picking our way through the rushes, when a duck flew up just to one 4G Bird-Nesting side of my feet, giving me a sudden start, and there m a hole underneath a clump of rushes I discovered a beautiful nest of twelve eggs of the American widgeon. I could see the eggs were fresh, and, as I was parched with thirst by the broiling sun and we could not reach the water of the lake owing to the belt of mud, I took out an ege@ drill and, boring a hole m the side, | sucked four eggs and found them very good, and re- freshing. This nest of the baldpate consisted of a hollow in the sand one foot in diameter, and this was thickly lined with grass, and feathers and down, on which rested the twelve pale buff- coloured eggs. The American widgeon appears to be a later breeder than most other ducks. I have a clutch of ten eggs that were taken on the Ist of June, 1890, in Miner County, South Dakota, and another clutch of eleven eggs that were collected in Minnesota, June 10th, and another of seven eggs that were taken June 9th, 1890, so this species seems to nest late, even much further south than Manitoba. Dr. Coues, in his “ Birds of the North-West,” savs, “In Northern Dakota I was sur- prised to find young widgeons still unable to fly, even as late as the middle of September, at a time when all other ducks ob- served were onthe wing.” The eges of the baldpateare like those of the European widgeon, pale creamy buff in colour, but are smaller, averaging 2.10x1.50. As we had now more birds and egos than we could carry, we hid them from hawks and vul- tures, and fastened a piece of paper to some tall rushes, so that we could easily tind the spot on our return. We then directed our steps to the south shore of the lake, and on our way startled three graceful antelopes, which bounded away at a tremendous speed, and were soon out of sight. On reaching the southern end of Rush Lake we found avosets very numerous and shot three handsome specimens; they were evidently nesting some- where in the vicinity, but we were unable to find their nests. Three kildeers had nests containing four eggs each, and we also flushed a Wilson’s snipe, which flew up calling out “ escape,” and, suiting the action to the word, dashed away and alighted in the rushes some distance off. We soon found its nest, a slight hollow in the ground lined with bits of drift rushes, In North-West Canadu. AT and the four egos were olive brown spotted with blackish brown, and had a few hair line streaks around the larger end of the eggs. Herring gulls were numerous, and Macdonald shot a fine adult specimen. I expected to find the nest of these gulls, as well as those of the avosets on an elevated strip of stony ground at the south end of the lake, but on arriving there we saw no signs of any nests. Some distance out on the lake were seven white pelicans, and the dog made a rush at them through the water, but they turned on him with open mouths and the ugly creatures scared the dog and he return- ed whimpering. They rose and flew over our heads, and Mac- donald fired at them but missed. They look tremendous birds on the wing and fly heavily, taking big sweeps with their wings. They nest on the east shore of the lake, but as they are early breeders we did not visit this colony. Macdonald informed me that about fifty pairs nest on a stony sandbar at the east end of the lake, and they had fresh eggs the second week in May. The nests are made by the birds scraping to- gether a mound of sand six inches high, and on this they place a few rushes carelessly, and lay generally two eggs, occasion- ally three, but two is the regular number; the average size is 3.50x2.30. They are chalky white in colour, with a calcareous deposit on them, and are more or less stained. As it was four o'clock, and Macdonald had to be back at the station to meet the train from the west at 5:30, we turned back and reached the spot where we had left the ducks’ eges and birds. We were heavily laden with all our spoils and our guns began to get heavy, so we tramped along for some distance without saying a word. My companion led the way, and I followed close behind with the dog at my heels. Some- thing tearing its way through the rushes caused Macdonald to come to a dead halt, and he dropped his birds, exclaiming excitedly, “give me a cartridge, here’s a wolf.” I at once dropped my birds and handed him a couple of cartridges from my belt, and ina second he had placed the cartridge in his gun and was trying to get a sight of the prairie wolf. The dog’s bark caused the wolf to bolt out of the rushes, and 48 Bird-Nesting Macdonald, fired but the shots did not seem to take any effect and the animal took to his heels, closely pursued by our dog, and both soon disappeared among the rushes. We had dis- turbed the wolf while making a meal of a female scaup duck which he had probably seized as she sat on her nest. Soon after the dog returned, having given up the chase. We now arrived at the creek and put up a marsh harrier which skim- ied away a few feet above the ground ; we sought for its nest without success, so we marked down the spot, intending to return some other time. It was now five o'clock and the station was yet over two miles away, so Macdonald said he would have to leave me to bring the birds along, whilst he hastened to the station to be in time to meet the train. So I sat down by the side of the creek and blew the ducks’ eggs and washed them out. After blowing over forty eggs, I found my burden lightened consid- erably. I tied the birds together and managed to carry the whole afternoon’s spoils along with me. On my return | flushed several ducks and coots from the creek, but did not search for their nests. The smoke of the engine now appear- ed winding its way through the western hills, and soon reach- ed the station. After the train had left, I saw Macdonald coming to meet me. On getting up to me he enquired, “ how many birds | had_ lett behind?” I told him I had got the whole lot, and had blown the eggs which had lessened their weight. He carried my gun, and on reaching the station- house we found supper ready, consisting of beef steak and mushrooms, to which we both did justice. After an hour's rest, Macdonald asked me if I felt like going out again, and as I now felt like a new man, having had a refreshing wash and a good supper, we set out, Macdonald taking his gun with him. We ascended the hills north of the railway, and then turned round and had a splendid panoramic view of Rush Lake and the creek, with the hills in the background. Mac- donald pointed out to me a long white streak on the shore of the lake, and told me that was the nesting-place of the pelicans. In North-West Canada. 49 The dog, which had followed, came limping towards us. I asked what was the matter, and was informed that he had got a cactus in his foot. On my enquiring if cacti plants grew around here, I was informed that they grew abundantly on these hills, and there were three or four species. We found the dog had got some spines in the soles of his feet, which were easily extracted. Soon afterwards Macdonald pointed out to me patches of cacti. I saw two species which are great fav- orites in the windows of houses in Toronto. One has a large crimson flower and grows about a foot high; another species has a large yellow flower. They grow in various shapes and all are covered with prickly spines. Macdonald took me to a pond among the hills and showed me a nest and eight egos of the pintail duck. The nest was in a bank side close to the water, and was a hollow in the ground lined with down. The eggs are pale grayish green, and average 2.20x 1.50. A kildeer plover came flying towards us, and before long we had a number of them flying above our heads. Mac- donald shot one, and although there must have been a num- ber of nests around, we did not find a single one, although we searched carefully. The kildeer is a very wary bird, and I never yet flushed one off its nest. Buffalo wallows are nu- merous among these hills. They are large circular hollows in the ground, from six to nine feet in diameter, and about a foot deep. They are overgrown with short green grass. They were made by the buffaloes in the following manner: The an- imals, on reaching some damp spot among the hills, would lay down and begin working their bodies round, scraping the ground with their feet. They soon work a large circular hol- low into which the water oozes, here they bathed themselves, and coated their bodies with mud, and a buftalo in this state cer- tainly would appear an ugly, shaggy monster. After one buf- falo had satisfied himself in wallowing, another would take his place, and in this way these wallows are found all over the prairies. There are generally numbers of these wallows together, showing that a herd of buffalo once frequented these places. The prairies are also bisected all over with their trails. D 50 Bird-Nesting These trails are from two to three feet wide, and were caused by the buffaloes running over the prairie, one behind the other in Indian file. The weight of two or three hundred buffaloes running one behind the other soon wore a deep pathway on the prairies. Their skulls and horns are scattered all over the prairies, and those in a good state of preservation are collected by the Indians, who polish them carefully and sell them at 75 cts.a pair. In Winnipeg buffalo horns sell for $2 a pair, and in Toronto they are $4 a pair. As the buffalo is now al- most extinct, in a wild state, their horns will soon become very valuable. An antelope appeared on a hill-top before us, so we crouched down in a buffalo wallow, and, making the dog le down, Mac- donald said he would bring that antelope close up to us, so he told me to keep myself and the dog out of sight. He then took out his handkerchief and began to wave it in the air, keeping his body down in the buffalo wallow. The antelope saw it and began to advance a few paces, and then stood staring at the moving handkerchief. Macdonald kept on waving, and the antelope walked a few paces closer, still staring at the hand- kerchief, and in this way it gradually advanced until it was within thirty yards, when the setter caught sight of him and sprang out after the antelope, which bounded away as swift as an arrow over the hills out of sight. He told me that this is the way the Indians obtain antelope for food ; they put a stick in the ground and tie a piece of rag to it, and then le down. The antelope approaches the object out of curiosity, and is then shot down at close range by the concealed Indian. As it was beginning to get dark, we turned round and descended the hills homeward. On arriving at the station-house I found eight railway hands playing cards; they represented different nationalities, all living under one roof. There was a Russian, a Swede, a Scotchman, a Yankee, a Frenchman, two Cana- dians, and a London cockney, quite an assortment. Every twenty miles eight men are appointed by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company to look after the tracks and keep them in repair, and these section-houses are built for their accommoda oS a ve 2503 So Se ANTELOPE HUNTING. In North-West Canada. 51 tion. On seeing my birds, the youngest of the Canadians in- formed me “that he knew where there was a lot of those golden plover nests,” pointing to the avoset, so I made arrange- ments for him to take me to the place the following day. He told me there was a lake five miles north, and three Sundays ago they had been out there collecting Canada geese eggs, and he saw five or six nests of plover. He described the eggs, and I knew they must have been avosets, so it was agreed that we should visit this lake next morning. 52 Bird-Nesting CHAPTER IX. Indian walked into the house and offered the land- > lady the hind-quarter of an antelope for fifty cents. She asked me if I would like some, and on my approval she bought it. I found it to be excellent meat, and almost lived on it for the next three days. Some Indians had arrived the night previous, and had erected their tepees near the section house, opposite my bed- room window. We were ready to start, so my new guide John took my gun and we ascended the hills north of Rush Lake. It was a lovely morning, and the sun glittered on the lake below us. The prairie was covered with sweet-scented flowers, their names unknown to me. There is a rich purple flower that grows in patches many yards square; they are found in the hollows between the hills, and when seen from an elevation they look like ponds of purple ink. There is another flower, bright yellow in colour; I call them wild ealceolarias. They also grow in great patches. McCown’s longspurs were very numerous, and we found several nests by flushing the birds from before our feet. They flutter along the ground for a few yards, and then, threading their way through the short grass for some distance, take wing. Their nests are made of fine grasses, and lined with a few horse hairs; they are built flush with the ground, and the brim of the nest is thick, but the bottom is shallow. The nests are usually built at the side of a tuft of grass. I was successful in obtaining a fine series of the eggs of this species during my stay at Rush Lake, and also found several nests at Moosejaw. The eggs can be distin- cuished from those of the chestnut-collared longspur by their larger size, and the ground colour is usually darker, and the markings heavier. Some clutches, however, so closely resemble those of the chestnut-collared longspur as to be scarcely dis- In North-West Canada. 53 tinguishable, but are generally a trifle larger. The average size of fifty specimens is 80x60, and the number of eggs to a clutch is usually five, sometimes only four. In my collection I have seven clutches of five eggs, and four clutches of four. The ground colour varies from white to greyish white, pinky white, clay and greyish olive, usually boldly spotted with umber and blackish brown ; many of the eggs are clouded over with dark purple grey which almost conceals the ground colour, and many of the eggs have scratches and hair-line streaks of brown. The male bird has a. pleasant song, and sings as it descends to the ground with outstretched motionless wings. It has a black crescent-shaped patch on its breast like that of the meadow lark, and when flying can be easily identified by its white tail feathers. The natives call them ground larks: They were the commonest of small birds found on the elevated prairies. I did not see any chestnut-collared longspurs at Rush Lake, but they were common in the Red River valley towards Winnipeg, where MeCown’s longspurs are also found in smaller numbers. I was informed that great flocks of snow and Lap- land buntings come around the house at Rush Lake in winter, and are surprisingly tame, but they are never seen in summer ; they go north to the Mackenzie River, Great Slave Lake, and Alaska to breed. I have a number of nests and eggs of the snow bunting that were collected in Iceland, where the birds are common. The nests are strong, compact and neatly built, and are made of grass, fine roots and hair, and are thickly lined with feathers ; the walls of the nest are an inch thick, and the cavity of the nest is deep. They are built on the ground under tussocks of grass, and sometimes under loose stones and in crevices of rocks. The eggs vary exceedingly both in size and colour. I have a series of fifty *specimens from Iceland and Greenland. The ground colour is usually white, greenish white or purplish white, and the eggs are speckled, spotted and blotched with various shades of brown and purple grey. The number of eggs laid is from four to six, but usually five. During the past five seasons my Iceland col- lector has sent me some three hundred and fifty eggs 54 Bird-Nesting of the snow bunting. Out of this number were forty-one clutches of five eggs each, nineteen clutches of four eggs, and eleven clutches of six eggs, so that five eggs appear to be the regular number. The eggs are laid both in Iceland and Green- land towards the latter part of June. The average size is 0.90x0.65. The Lapland bunting does not breed in Iceland, but is common in Greenland and Lapland. I have four clutches collected June 20, 1882, in South Greenland, as well as a number of sets of four and five eggs that were collected at Tornea, Lapland, June 11, 1888. The eggs are very dark like those of the titlark, with a chocolate, sienna or olive ground, clouded with darker brown: and some eggs have streaks and hair-lines of dark brown, chiefly round the butt end. On the high prairie above Rush Lake, curlews, willets, kil- deers and Bartram’s sandpipers were numerous. We saw a number of marbled godwits, and shot a willet and a marbled godwit. The lake where the avosets breed now appeared in sight, and we were soon walking along its western shore, where » we disturbed several Canada geese. John showed me three nests from which he had taken eggs the first week in May. The nests were hollows in the sand along the margin of the lake amongst the grass, and these hollows were lined abund- antly with greyish down and feathers. On the lake were several species of ducks and other water-fowl. Avosets were plentiful, and we shot four handsome specimens. This lake was about a mile and a half long and half a mile wide. Near the north end are two small sandy islands, about which were several terns, Bonaparte’s gulls, anda few Franklin’s gulls. At the east side of the lake a stony sand-bar ran out towards the centre of the lake, and on approaching this place the -avosets became very noisy, flying around making a jelping kind of a noise. We soon found two or three nests, and on reaching the end of the sand-bar the nests became so numerous that we had to be careful not to step upon the eggs. It was a grand sight, and one [shall never forget. There must have been over one hun- dred eggs on this narrow sand-bar. We collected a number of ER 1 epi sijueambsere is =e AV OIC Eat ec as INDE Git. In North-West Canada. 55 clutches that were fresh or slightly incubated, and left those that had been sat upon some days. The avosets seemed to prefer to make their nests amongst the stones; the buff and white stone being similar in colour to the plumage of the birds, helped to conceal them as they sat on their nests. The num- ber of eggs in each nest was invariably four, and the nests consisted of a hollow scraped into the sand, and lined with a few blades of dry grass. The eggs vary in size, and are not unlike those of the European lapwing, and upon showing them to a Scotchman at Rush Lake, he exclaimed: “ Why these are pewitt’s egos, I used to collect lots in Scotland.” But they are larger than lapwing’s eggs, and are easily distinguished by the oologist. The ground colour is drab, buff, or olive-buff, thickly spotted and blotched with dark brown and black. Some clutches have a greenish olive ground, and one clutch we found hada pale creamy buff ground. Some also have scratches and lines as well as spots and blotches; they average 1.95x1.35. Of one hundred specimens now before me, two of the largest measure 2.20x1x35 and 2.15x1.57, and two of the smallest measure 1.82x1.25 and 1.87x1.30. The avosets seem to prefer the alkaline lakes to those of fresh water; they are beautiful birds, with their long blue legs, and long upturned bills, which look like a piece of curved whalebone. The avocet has webbed feet, and is a good swimmer, and looks very singular when fly- ing, with its long neck and bill stretched straight out in front, and its long legs counterbalancing by being carried straight out behind. We collected a number of their eggs and sucked some of the fresh ones, as the water was alkaline and we were thirsty, as the day was very hot, being one hundred degrees in the shade. We were walking around the lake towards the north end, when we flushed a scaup duck from its nest, and nine eggs, which proved to be considerably incubated, although we managed to blow them. The nest was similar to most other ducks, consisting of a hole scraped in the ground and lined with down, and was found amongst the coarse grass growing a few yards from the waters’ edge. The eggs are easily dis- 56 Bird-Nesting tinguished from those of other ducks; they are olive grey, with a buffy tinge, and measure 2.30x1.60. Near the top end of the lake we came across a perfect skele- ton of a large buffalo: at the base of the horns was some hair, and it had evidently only been there a few years, judging from its perfect condition. We tried to shoot some very small sandpipers at the north end of the lake. They ran amongst the grass like mice, and at last John shot one which proved to be a northern phalarope, and soon afterwards we flushed another from its nest, and four eggs. We were surprised to find the rednecked phalarope breeding in this region. The nest was a circular hollow in the sand, three inches in diam- eter, and was lined with a few blades of grass, and the eggs— four in number—were the smallest sandpipers we had ever found. They have a ground colour of olive brown, and are heavily spotted with blackish brown. They were fresh. We saw several of these small phalarope swimming out in the water with Wilson’s phalaropes. We had now arrived at a stony strip of land that swarmed with avosets, but we could not find a single nest. A short distance out were two small sandy islands, and as several terns and gulls were hovering around screaming, we decided to take off our boots and stockings and wade out to examine these islands. In sitting down I almost sat on a nest of Wilson’s phalarope containing one egg. We waded out to the first island, and there a sight met our eyes which made our hearts throb with joy. There on the ground were scores of nests of avosets, Foster’s terns, as well as a few of those of the Bonaparte’s gull. In walking’about we had to be careful at every step for fear of treading on the egos. The avosets flew around jelping, and the gulls and terns flying over our heads screaming—all these species combined made a deafening noise. The nests of the avosets were simply hollows in the sand, lined with a few blades of grass, and usually contained four eggs, many of which were partly incubated ; some nests only contained two or three eggs, and these were quite fresh. One nest contained five eggs, which is an unusual occurence. The ‘} '% 2 KNOTS 32 NORTHERN FPHALAROPE a 4 BARTRAMS SANOPIPER 5 GREY OR RED PHALAROPE 6 SPOTTED SANDPIPER 7 WILSONS PHALAROPE 8 GOLDEN PLOVER 9 KILDEER 10 WILSON'S SNIRE Wo AVOCET In North-West Canada. 57 terns’ nests were also depressions in the sand, lined with a few blades of grass, and contained two and three eggs each, and many nests only contained one egg, the full complement of egos not being yet laid as the terns are late breeders. The gulls’ nests were also hollows in the sand, lined with grasses, ahd contained two and three eggs each. The ground colour of some specimens is pale brown, others greenish olive brown, spotted with dark brown of various shades, with grey under shell markings. The average size is 2.00x1.35. At Crescent Lake, in ete be, the Bonaparte’s gulls make their nests in bushes growing in or near the water, and the nests are substantial structures of twigs and rushes, but at Rush Lake where there are no bushes, the gulls have to be content to make their nests on the ground. We collected a fine series of avosets’ eggs, taking care to keep the clutches separate by marking them with a pencil. The first clutch we marked a-4, second clutch b-4, and so on, until we had got pretty nearly through the alphabet. Any clutches that were advanced in incubation we left for the birds to hatch. We also took a nice series of egos of Foster’s tern, and a number of sets of Bonaparte’s gulls, and shot three specimens of the latter. We left the birds and eggs and waded out to the far island, and here we also found a number of all three species, but the avosets were the most plentiful, and these two islands must have had close upon four hundred eggs of the avoset on them. At the far end of the sandy island we flushed a Canada goose, which flew along the top of the water with a splash, and making a croaking noise. On arriving at the spot we were delighted to find its cosy nest of down, containing five eggs, which were partly incubated, but we were able to make good specimens of them. This was, no doubt, the second clutch of egos laid by this bird, as the Canada goose is an early breeder, and has eggs soon after the ice melts on the lakes early in May. ‘The nest was a hollow in the sand, one foot and a-half in diameter, and was abundantly lined with grey down. I now have the nest and eggs in one of my cabinets, and it looks well, surrounded with the downy nests and clutches of Ameri- 58 Bird-Nesting can widgeon,shoveller, harlequin, long-tail,eider and other ducks. Karly in May my companion collected two clutches of Can- ada geese at this lake. They were taken to the station house at Rush Lake and put under a turkey, which was sit- ting on the eggs during my stay. At the house was a brood of five young Canada geese about two weeks old. The eggs had been collected at this lake the latter end of April, and put under a hen to hatch, and the hen paid them as much atten- tion as if they had been her own offspring. Every spring a number of eggs of the Canada geese are collected and hatched out by turkeys or hens in this way, and when the geese are full grown, they are killed and eaten. This is the only species of goose that remains to breed in this region; but in the autumn large flocks of snow geese, called waveys by the natives, and white-fronted and Hutchins’ geese visit Rush Lake, as well as numbers of trumpeter and whistling swans. We collected a number of sets of terns, gulls and avosets on this island, and then waded back to the island nearest the shore where we had left the other birds’ eggs. We filled our hats, boxes and handkerchiefs with eggs and carried them to shore. As we had more eggs than we could carry, we decided to leave most of them until the following day, when we in- tended to return with a large basket. So we scraped a large hole in the sand and laid the eggs in it, and covered them with grass and sand, only taking along with us as many clutches as we could conveniently carry. On the return jour- ney, we disturbed a willet off its nest and eggs, and also flushed a McCown’s longspur from its nest and five eggs. The nest of the latter was made of dried grass, and lined with a few hairs and built flush with the ground under the shelter of a tuft of grass. The eggs are pale greyish white, spotted with dark purple brown, and also mottled with purplish grey. After two hours’ tramp over the prairie, we reached Rush Lake tired and hungry. After supper, the manager of the farm situated west of Rush Lake, called at the station house, and I was introduced to him, and he promised to drive me next day to a lake ten miles north, near the South Saskatchewan river. vi ila it t i “i ue i ul tial _— i jutetitay eT CANADA GOOSE & NEST ty lini, iH i inill recta email g MESA Mt omste In North-West Canada. 59 CHAPTER X. ae iO | manager of the farm drove up to the house with . his buckboard and team of horses, accompanied by eS ‘¥=S* three deerhounds, two setters and a water spaniel. we Taking sufficient victuals to last us for the day, three 6 of us started out with*light hearts. The dogs, however, made it a difficult task to find any eggs, as they ran along some distance in front of us, and disturbed the field plovers, curlews and godwits off their nests. On our way we stopped at a small slough where a pair of marbled godwits evidently had a nest, and after some trouble we succeeded in finding it. The nest was built in the centre of a tussock of grass and con- tained four eggs, olive drab in colour, spotted with umber brown, averaging 2.25x1.60. After a twelve miles enjoyable drive over the hilly prairie, the lake appeared in sight and we were soon driving along its southern shore. John and myself alighted and began to scour the beach, while the manager walked his horses slowly around the lake to find a suitable camping ground. This lake was about four miles long by two broad and swarmed with Canada geese, American widgeons, shovellers, seaups, gadwalls, pintails, mallards and other ducks, while feeding along its sandy beach were numerous avosets, curlews, godwits, kildeers, sandpipers and herring, Franklin’s and Bonaparte’s gulls. Many of the ducks and geese had young ones swimming around them, and had I visited this lake six weeks earlier, I should no doubt have found a number of nests and eggs of ducks and geese. This lake lies sheltered between the hills, just south of the Saskatchewan river, and is seldom visited by human beings, consequently the water- fowl are very tame and were swimming about just a short dis- tance from the shore. Our first find was a nest of the pallid- horned lark and two cowbird’s eggs. The nest was made of Oe UNE 11th—-Soon after breakfast this morning, the 60 Bird-Nesting dry grass embedded in the sand, and the top of the nest was flush with the surrounding sand, and sheltered by a tuft of grass. It only contained one egg of the pallid-horned lark be- sides the two cowbirds, and all of the eggs were advanced in incubation. The two cowbird’s eggs were evidently laid by the same bird. The egg of the pallid-horned lark is deep buff, sprinkled with olive-brown and measures 92x65. The following day I found another nest of this species, it contained two eggs which were fresh, they are very much like the one found previously, both as regards colour and size. The pallid-horned lark inhabits this region and becomes more plentiful northward through Alberta and the Saskatchewan to Alaska, but does not breed in the United States except in Northern Montana. The eggs are larger than those of the prairie-horned lark, of which I have a large series, collected near Winnipeg and Northern Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. The eggs of the pallid-horned lark are the same size as those of the horned lark which breeds in Northern Europe, of which I have several sets collected in Lapland. A few pairs of the true horned lark, Otocoris alpestris, re- main to nest every spring on the island opposite Toronto, Lake Ontario, although the main body go farther north-east to breed around the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador, and Newfoundland. For some time our local ornithologists have been undecided as to whether these shore larks, nesting on To- ronto Island, were prairie-horned larks or the true Otocoris alpestris. We have now come to the conclusion that they are Otocoris alpestris. Early in spring, while this sandy island is covered with snow, and almost before the ice in the bay has broken up, large flocks of larks arrive and frequent the island for some time. By the first week in May the main flocks have left, only leaving a few straggling pairs, which remain to nest. Two sets, with the nests, before me, are considerably larger than the eggs of the prairie-horned lark. The first set, collected on Toronto Island, May 21st, 1886, consisted of four eggs, ave- raging in size 90x64. The eggs have a greenish-grey ground, freckled all over with pale brownish grey. Another nest before In North-West Canada. 61 me is composed of dead, dried grass, lined with feathers ; the top of the nest was flush with the surrounding sand. In this set, collected June 14th, 1889, the four eggs are almost as large as those of the European skylark, averaging 93x65. They have a grey ground, mottled all over with olive-brown and _ lilac. They resemble in size the eggs of the shore lark from Lapland, and when compared with several sets of the prairie-horned lark from Iowa and Minnesota, it is at once seen that they are considerably larger. As there are a number of geographical varieties of the shore lark; there has always been an uncertainty ‘in their identification and breeding ranges. We carefully packed the eggs of the pallid-horned lark and the two cowbirds, and walked along the beach of the lake to- wards a place where avosets were very numerous, but we were unable to find a single nest. We shot a pair of avosets, and later on, a small sandpiper, unknown to me, but which turned out to be the least sandpiper, tringa minutila. As we afterwards saw several others around the lake, we concluded they were breeding, but unless these small sandpipers are flushed off their nests, the eggs are difficult to find. A set of four eggs, collected in Labrador, June 20th, 1887, are buffy drab, spotted with brown and purple grey, they average in size 1.12x82. This bird is also known as the American stint. John shot a curlew and two avosets, and the report of his gun caused a shoveller to fly from a patch of marsh grass to the lake. After some time we found its nest of down and nine greyish buff-coloured eggs. They were slightly incubated. Our companion, with his team of horses, had found a suit- able resting-place, so he took out the horses and gave them a drink; and when we arrived, we decided it was lunch-time, as our long drive over the prairie had made our appetites keen. So we satisfied our hunger with antelope sandwiches, fruit pies and milk. As it began to rain, we took shelter under the buckboard, but the shower was soon over, so John and I set out to explore the lake, while our companion, the farm manag- er, said he felt like having a sleep, so we left him, as we were too much interested in the surroundings to think of napping. 62 Bird-Nesting Behind us was a small pond, surrounded with rushes, it was separated from the lake by a ridge of sand, and this ridge ap- peared to be a place where the ducks, geese and gulls came to plume their feathers, as the sand was covered with feathers and droppings of birds, reminding one of a barn yard. On a sand bar were a number of herring and Bonaparte’s gulls, so we directed our steps there and found a number of neses of both species. The nests were simply hollows in the sand, lined with grass, and usually contained three eggs, some nests only contained two eggs. The herring gull’s eggs vary in ground-colour and markings. Some have a deep yellowish buff ground, others are pale greenish brown. They are heavily spotted with brown of various shades, and have shell markings of purplish grey, and average 2.85x2.00. The eggs of Bonaparte’s gulls are similar to those of Frank- lin’s gull, but are somewhat smaller, and not usually so dark in colour. They vary, both in ground colour and markings. Some are yellowish buff, others greenish or olive, others pale brown, spotted with dark brown and dark grey, average 2.00x 1.55. We collected as many clutches as we could conveniently earry, and blew them on the spot,to prevent them getting broken by knocking against each other. We shot a fine adult Bonaparte’s gull, and then proceeded round the north end of the lake. Here the banks of the lake were from twenty to thirty feet high, and were overgrown with bushes. The banks were honey-combed with gopher holes, and a few larger holes were no doubt the homes of the badger. Rose bushes were in full bloom, sending forth a sweet fragrance, and cacti plants were growing plentifully on these banks. We were scrambling up these slopes, when we flushed a small duck out of a gopher hole. It flew into the lake and was soon joined by another small duck. With the aid of our field glass, we saw they were a pair of buffle-headed ducks, so we serambled up to the top of the bank to try and find its nest. There were several holes, or rather burrows, in the bank, and we could not tell which one the bird flew from. I wanted John to put his hand into the burrows to see if he could find the nest, but he replied, In North-West Canada. © 63 “ What if a rattle snake should get hold of me?’ Well, I had to confess myself that I did not fancy putting my arm into the dark burrow, not knowing what the occupant might be, and we stood in silence, wondering what course to take. The duck had flown from this bank, and although the buftle-headed duck is supposed to nest in hollow trees, still I supposed where there are no trees, the bufle-head, like other birds, has to accommodate itself to the country. We got down on our knees and looked into several burrows. In one I thought I saw something, and when my eyes got used to the dark- ness of the burrow, I saw it was a nest of down, so I put my arm in, but could not reach the nest, so we enlarged the opening, and then succeeded in reaching the nest. It contained twelve egos, which were partly incubated, but we succeeded in blowing them, and making good specimens of the set. The eggs were laid on a bed of down, three feet from the entrance of the burrow. The eggs are now on a table before me. Two of the largest measure 1.98x1.41 and 1.97x1.40; two of the smallest measure 1.95x1.57 and 1.87x1.40. I expected the eggs would be similar in colour to those of the common or Barrow’s golden-eye ducks, ashy green, but they are entirely different. They mostly resemble some varieties of the European teal in colour, but of course are larger. They are a warm dull buff colour, with a greyish tinge. Another clutch of ten eggs, taken from a hole in a decayed tree at Oak Lake, Manitoba, on May 25th, 1890, are greyish buff, and average 2.00x1.45. This nest was found by the bird flying from the hole, which was situated about fifteen feet from the ground, ina decayed limb. The hole was lined with feathers and down. The buftle-headed duck is not a rare bird in Manitoba and Assiniboia, and the male birds, with their puffy heads, are fre- quently seen swimming about the lakes and sloughs. In some parts of Manitoba, where the lakes are surrounded with pine, ~ tamarac, and scrub oaks, both the buflle-head, wood duck, and hooded merganser are regular summer visitors, and are known to return year after year to the same tree to lay their eggs. 64 Bird-Nesting The wood duck breeds at Whitewater Lake, at the foot of Turtle Mountain, in Southern Manitoba. A clutch of ten egos taken from a hole in a tree fifteen feet from the ground, on June Ist, 1890, are like eggs of the American widgeon, both in size and colour, being pale buff, and averaging in size 2.00x1.50. The wood or summer duck isa handsome bird, and is well named bridal duck, on account of the beautiful colours and lustre of its plumage. The hooded merganser is another species of duck that lays its eggs in holes in trees. A clutch of nine eggs in my collection were taken at Pelican Lake, Manitoba, May 28th,1889. The nest of down and feathers was made inside a decayed tree, ten feet from the ground and some distance from the water. The eggs are a delicate pearly white, and average 2.10x1.70. The male bird can easily he recognized by its striking black and white colours, and also by its crest. We carefully packed the eggs of the buftle-head, and John tried to shoot the birds, but they were such expert divers, they were soon out of range of hisgun. We returned to the place where we had left our companion with his dogs and horses, and, packing up our lunch-baskets and specimens, we hitched the horses to the buckboard and drove round the north end of the lake. Here we flushed a willet off its nest and four eggs, and several Bartram’s sandpipers were nesting, but the dogs disturbed the birds before we reached the place where they evidently had their nests. The dogs proved a great trouble, as they ran along in front of us, frightening the birds away, and the only way to find the nests of plovers and other birds, which make their nests on the ground, is to come upon them unexpectedly and flush them off their nests, just a short dis- tance in front; it is then an easy matter to search the spot where the bird flies or runs from. We crossed over the prairie to the lake where we had left the avosets’ eggs the day previ- ous, and after a ride of four miles we reached the north end of the lake, where the skeleton of the buffalo lay. Our com- panion informed us that it was evidently an old buffalo by its teeth, and it had no doubt got left behind by the herd, and had In North- West Canada. 65 wandered to the lake to drink, and had probably been attack- ed by wolves and devoured. It appeared to have only lain there four or five years, as the skeleton was in a good state of preservation. We took out the baskets from the buckboard ; these we had brought purposely to take back the eggs we had collected yesterday, and on walking along the beach towards the place where the avosets’ and terns’ eggs were buried, we flushed a spotted sandpiper off its nest and four eggs, and soon after- wards John shot a buff-breasted sandpiper and a marbled god- wit. The buft-breasted sandpiper, no doubt, nests in this dis- trict, as it certainly does on the banks of the North Saskatche- wan. A set of four eggs in my collection, collected at Prince Albert on June 9th, 1889, may be described as follows : Shape, pointedly pyriform ; ground colour, greyish clay, boldly spot- ted with umber brown, and shell markings of neutral tint. The markings are so heavy at the butt end of the ege as to almost conceal the ground. The nest was a slight depression in the ground, lined with a few blades of grass. The eggs of this species are not unlike some varieties of the European dun- lin, but they are smaller, and the ground colour is paler and clay-coloured, whereas the ground colour of the dunlin is greenish, or olive buff. The eggs of the buff-breasted sand- piper average in size 1.45x1.05. Our next find was a clutch of four Wilson’s phalaropes. As usual, the bird stumbled off the nest just in front of my feet. The nest was built in the centre of a tuft of grass, and the four eggs were boldly spotted with blackish brown on a clay ground. John shot a pair of Wilson’s phalaropes, and also a northern phalarope; both species were numerous about this place. The shore of the lake was stony, with tufts of grass growing amongst the stones, and this seemed to suit the phala- ropes and sandpipers. There were two or three other species of small sandpipers, which I could not identify, as we were not successful in obtaining specimens. I have not the slightest doubt that several species of the rarer sandpipers, supposed to only breed within the Arctic circle, remain to nest amongst these lakes, which are numerous. From here northward E 66 Bird-Nesting through the Saskatchewan region there are thousands of them, and so little is known of the avifauna of these pro- vinces, that I should not be surprised if some day, when this region is better known to ornithologists, it will be found that such species as grey and northern phalaropes, least sand- piper, American dunlin, semipalmated sandpiper and other northern birds, remain to nest regularly in this region, and further south than is generally supposed. Arriving at the place where we had buried the eggs the day previous, we found they had not been molested: we were afraid foxes might have found them, but they were all right, so we filled our baskets and returned to the buckboard and found our companion and his dogs and horses waiting patiently. As it was four o'clock, we turned the horses’ heads homeward. On descending over the brow of a slope, we disturbed a curlew off its nest, which consisted of a saucer-shaped hollow in the ground, lined with grass, and the four eggs were pale olive brown, spotted with dark brown, and measured 2.75x1.80. Later on, the noise of the horses’ feet started a burrowing owl out of its hole, and it flew a short distance and perched on a stone. John put a cartridge in his gun and got off the buck- board and shot it. It was only winged, so I handed it to the farm manager to kill, while John and I tried to get at the nest; we piled up some stones so that we could easily find the place next day, when we intended to return with a shovel to dig down to the nest. On our way home, the dogs caught scent of a jack rabbit and gave chase, and ten minutes later we came upon Dan, the setter, who was sat down guarding the rabbit which lay dead be- tween his paws, and the other dogs were sat around him, waiting patiently, but not daring to touch it, as Dan was boss over the other dogs. Their master got down from the buckboard, and taking up the rabbit, he threw it amongst the six dogs, and in less than one minute the rabbit was torn into pieces, and disap- peared down six hungry throats. and we proceeded home- ward. Shortly afterwards our companion called out: “ Look there !” Glancing in the direction, we saw the hounds in full In North-West Canada. 67 ery after another jack rabbit, and a splendid bit of coursing was seen to advantage over a level stretch of prairie. The three deer hounds were close behind the heels of the hare, then followed the two setters some distance behind, while half a mile in the rear was the little water spaniel, running at his full speed. It was amusing to see him so eager in the chase, yet so far behind; he was no match for the nimble hare and the fleet-footed hounds. Two of the hounds were losing ground, but the youngest and most sleek kept close at the heels of the hare, and we expected every moment to see the hound seize the hind legs of the hare, who was fleeing for his life; every second we expected jack would drop, but he had a knack of turning so suddenly that it thwarted the hound on several occasions. This exciting scene terminated by the hare and hound disappearing behind a slope near the railway. We afterwards heard that poor bunny succumbed, as the railway hands saw the dog devouring a rabbit alongside of the railway track on their way home from work. I went home and had sup- per with the farm-manager, who showed me over the farm and ranches. While at supper, a cowboy came in and reported that some Cree Indians had stolen a mare, and had gone west to- wards Swift Current. He was ordered to be up and after them at day-break, and to take a brace of revolvers and his swift horse. Next evening he returned home safe with the mare, having overtaken the Indians at Goose Lake, nearly forty miles west of Rush Lake. They told him they had found the mare, and after a few threats and curses they gave the mare up to him, and he reached home tired, having ridden on horseback eighty miles that day. This farm and ranch, con- sisting of 10,000 acres, is owned by the Canadian Agricultural Company. These farms, ten in number, occur at intervals of thirty miles between Rush Lake and Calgary. The country around here is specially valuable as a stock- -raising district. It is impossible to conceive of a better stock. country than that lying between the Cyprus Hills and the railway. The Cyprus Hills stretch from Goose Lake to Medicine Hat, on the South Saskatchewan River; they gradually rise towards the west, 68 Bird-Nesting until they reach an altitude of 3,800 feet, and in many places are covered with valuable timber. The country is rich in grasses that possess peculiar attractions for horses and cattle, and the valleys and groves give ample shelter all seasons of the year, and the numerous streams flowing out of the Cyprus Hills afford an unfailing supply of water. The handsome pro- fits realized by the stockmen testify better than words to the value of this district for cattle-raising. Another splendid ranch country is from Calgary to the foot hills of the Rockies, and southward one hundred and fifty miles to the United States boundary. You may be sure of a cordial welcome, should you visit the ranchmen, and it will be well worth your while to do so, if you should ever travel through this territory. Cattle and horses graze at will all over the country, summer and winter alike. The warm “Chinook” winds from across the mountains keep the ground free from snow, except for two or three days at a time, and the nutritious grasses are always within reach of the cattle. In the spring and autumn all the ranchmen join in a “round up, to collect and sort out the animals, according to the brands of the different owners, and then “the cowboy” appears in all his glory. To see these splendid riders “ cutting out” or separating the animals from the common herd, lassoing and throwing them, that they may be branded with the owner’s mark, or herding a band of free- born and unbroken horses, is well worth seeing. The ranch- men, fine fellows from the best families in the east, and from Scotland and England, live here in a lordly way, and I envy them their happy, contented lives. Admirable horsemen, with abundant leisure and unlimited opportunities for sport, their intense love for this country is no matter for wonder, nor is it surprising that every week brings more young men of the best class to join in this free and joyous life. In North-West Canada. 69 CHAPTER XI. UNE 12th.—I was up early this morning and blew a quantity of the eggs collected yesterday. After breakfast we set out for the hills north of Rush (ey Lake, and John carried along with him a spade to we enable us to dig for some burrowing owl’s eggs. A {9 pair of turkey vultures were seen flying around in circles, with motionless wings, high in the air, and we sat down for some time and gazed upwards at their beautiful aerial evolutions. When the ornithologist sees these red- headed vultures on the wing for the first time, performing all their movements with the utmost grace and elegance, he can- not help exclaiming, “ What magnificent birds!” but after he becomes acquainted with their disgusting habits when feeding, he can never look upon them with the same admiration as be- fore. John informed me that turkey vultures were more numerous years ago, when he was a boy, and when the buffalo were plentiful on the prairie, and that after a buffalo had been killed and the best parts cut up and carried off for food, the refuse was left for the wolves and vultures. At first only two or three vultures would appear on the scene, but before many hours had elapsed their numbers would increase to twenty or thirty, here they would fight over the carcass, and eat to such excess and become so crammed that they were unable to fly. They are great cowards when captured, and never attempt to defend themselves as hawks or owls do when winged; the latter le on their backs and strike out with their talons, and often keep a dog at bay for a consider- able time, but the turkey vulture merely hangs down its head in the most abject manner, and if it has been recently eating anything it will disgorge the contents of its stomach at its captors feet. The turkey vulture is mute, and their only noise is a kind of hiss. It is only when flying these birds 70 Bird-Nesting show to advantage: when on the ground they walk or hop, sometimes moving with a succession of leaps, accelerated with the wings. When about to take flight they stoop till their breast almost touches the ground, and then unfolding their wings, give a vigorous spring into the air; with a few power- ful, hurried flaps they are fairly off. They soon begin their gyrations with set wings, only beating at mtervals when they are forced to rise rapidly away from some obstacle, and, cir- cling thus, they are shortly in the upper air. Though the turkey vulture has a slothful appearance and disgusting habits still it lays beautiful egos, which somewhat redeems its character in the eyes of the oologist. Next to the osprey, they are the richest in colouring of the North American rap- tores. A large series make a good display. They are usually creamy or yellowish white, variously blotched and splashed with rich brown, and also have numerous markings of pur- plish-grey. They measure 2? inches in length by 2 inches in breadth. The turkey vulture only lays two eggs, generally on the ground, and the nest is a slight affair. The first nest we found was that of the pallid horned lark; the nest was made of dry grass, lined with a few cow hairs, and was em- bedded in the earth. The bird was flushed off the nest; it only contained two eggs of a deep buff colour, freckled with pale brown. They measure .90x.65 and .92x.66. We directed our steps to the place where we had shot the burrowing owl the afternoon previous ; we followed the track the wheels of the buckboard had made in the short grass, and this led us to the place where we had piled up some loose stones near the mouth of the burrow. There were numerous holes, and John commenced to dig with the spade ; the ground was stony and it was no easy matter digging down the burrow. The sun was very powerful, and the mos- quitoes were a terror, every sting was like that of a bee, and caused red, inflamed spots to blister all over our necks and faces. We dug in turns, and found the burrow went perpen- dicularly down about three feet and then ran along parallel with the surface of the ground for another four feet. John In North-West Canada. ral was tired out and was bathed in perspiration, so I threw off my coat and vest and commenced to dig, and soon afterwards threw out some manure, so I knew we were near the nest of the burrowing owl, as they always line their nests with dry horse-dung. John then crawled down the hole we had dug and reached the eggs, and I pulled him out by his feet. It just took us one hour to dig down to the eggs. The nest con- tained seven eggs, partly incubated. Although John had lived on the prairies all his life he had never previously seen the eggs of this bird, but he said he would never forget that day and the difficult task we had in obtaining the set of eggs. Some authors say that the rattlesnakes, prairie dogs and bur- rowing owls live together in their burrows in perfect har- mony, but this is bosh. It is true these species are frequently found in the villages of the prairie dogs. The owls accommo- date themselves to the burrows which have been dug by the prairie dogs, as offering the most convenient nesting-places, and the rattlesnakes are there to obtain food, and are known to live extensively on young gophers. Dr. Coues, in his book, “Birds of the North-West,’ gives an interesting account, of these three creatures, the rattlesnake, prairie dog and burrowing owl. “ First, as to the reptiles, it may be observed that they are like other rattlesnakes, dan- gerous, venomous creatures; they have no business in the burrows, and are after no good when they do enter. They wriggle into the holes, partly because there is no other place for them to crawl into on the bare, flat plain, and partly in search of birds’ eggs, owlets, and puppies to eat. Next, the owls themselves are simply attracted to the villages of prairie- dogs as the most convenient places for shelter and nidifica- tion, where they find eligible ready-made burrows, and are spared the trouble of digging for themselves. Community of interest makes them gregarious to an extent unusual among rapacious birds; while the exigencies of life on the plains casts their lot with the rodents. That the owls live at ease in the settlements, and on familiar terms with their four-footed neighbors, is an undoubted fact, but that they inhabit the 72 Bird-Nesting same burrows, or have any intimate domestic relations is quite another thing. It is no proof that the quadrupeds and the birds live together, that they are often seen to scuttle at each other’s heels into the same hole when alarmed ; for in such a case the two simply seek the nearest shelter, independently of each other. The probability is, that young dogs often furnish a meal to the owls, and that in return the latter are often robbed of their eggs by the dogs; while certainly the young of both, and the owls’ eggs, too, are eaten by the snakes. In the large villages there are thousands of burrows, many occupied by the dogs but more perhaps vacant. These latter are the homes of the owls. Moreover, the ground below is honey-combed with communicating passages leading in every direction. If the underground plan could be mapped, it would resemble the city of Boston, with its tortuous and devious streets. The dogs are continually busy in fair weather in repairing and extend- ing their establishments. The main entrance may be compar- ed to the stumps of a hollow tree, the interior of which com- municates with many hollow branches that moreover intersect these passages, finally ending in little pockets, the real home of the animals. It is quite possible that the respective retreats of a dog and an owl may have but one vestibule, but even this does not imply that they nest together. It is strong evi- dence in point, that usually there are the fewest owls in the towns most densely populated by the dogs, and conversely, seareity of food or water often makes the dogs emigrate from one locality to another: it is in such “deserted villages ” that the owls are seen in greatest numbers. The note of the burrowing owl is similar to that of the yellow-billed cuckoo. Their favourite food is grasshoppers, and they also live on lizards and young prairie dogs. They are commonly observed perched on one of the innumerable little eminences that mark a dog town. Amid their curious surroundings, they present a spectacle not easily forgotten. Their figure is peculiar, with their long legs and short tail; the element of the grotesque is never wanting; it is hard to say whether they look most ludicrous as they stand stiffly erect and motionless, or when In North-West Canada. 73 they suddenly turn tail into the hole, or when engaged in their various antics. The eggs of the burrowing owl are glossy white and nearly round; the usual number is six or seven, although as many as ten are frequently found in one nest ; the average size is 1.24x1.03. There were several other burrows in the immediate neighborhood, but we were quite satistied with one clutch, and we were only too glad to move away from those little pests, the mosquitoes, who were gather- ing around us in myriads. Below us between a ridge of hills was a small slough, so we went in this direction, and were saluted by a pair of willets, and after some searching came across the nest of four eggs. The eggs of this bird are brownish olive marked with bold spots of various shades of umber brown and shell markings of purplish grey: they are large for the size of the bird, and average 2.12x1.50. Our next find was a nest of McCown’s longspur, containing four eggs, slightly incubated. This is a pretty set, and heavily marked ; the white ground colour is almost concealed by pur- plish grey, and on the top of this clouding are heavy spots of dark brown. A marsh hawk was seen harrying over the prairie, no doubt on the look out for gophers; it was an adult male in blue plumage. From a hill-top we could see a small lake, nearly two miles away, so we turned in this direction, and on arriving there we found the surface dotted all over with wild fowl. There were numbers of Canada geese, shovellers, mallards, godwits, American widgeons, scaups, and other ducks. The water was alkaline, much to our disgust, but we were so parched with thirst, from the effect of the broiling sun, that we were compelled to take a few sips of the water. It acts like medicine, and is as good as a dose of Epsom salts, but if too much is taken it gripes fearfully, and John informed me he once made himself ill through drinking alkaline water. The alkaline can be seen all over these prairies, coming up through the earth like white flour, and little vegetation grows upon these alkaline tracts. The birds, however, don’t seem to be af- fected by it, and avosets and pelicans seem to prefer the alka- line lakes to those of fresh water. There were a number of 74 Bird-Nesting avosets along the beach, and we disturbed one from its nest of four eggs, which were on the point of hatching. The shells were chipped, and the young ones chirping inside the shells : the parent bird was greatly troubled, and flew around us jelp- ing, so we retired from the spot so that she could return and help her little ones out of the shells. Soon afterwards a spot- ted sandpiper was startled off its nest and four eggs, the nest consisting of a depression in the sand, lined with a few blades of grass. I found a number of sets of this species during my stay in this district, and noticed that the ground colour is much paler than those found on Toronto island and the east; perhaps the alkaline district and change of food has something to do with it. I have a large series of eggs of the spotted sandpiper I collected on the island opposite Toronto, Lake On- tario, and when the eggs collected at Rush Lake and vicinity are compared with this series, it is at once noticed that the ground colour of those from the alkaline lakes is almost white, or very pale clay, whereas the ground colour of the eggs col- lected in the east is deep clay or buff: the difference is very noticeable. I almost trod upon a young avoset in down; as it crouched between the small stones I caught sight of its bright little eye or would have stepped on it, the downy plumage corres- ponded so closely with the stones and sand. On glancing round my feet I saw two others crouched down between the stones, motionless; on picking them up they began to call out lustily, and putting them down again they ran along the sand as fast as their legs could take them. They are pretty little creatures, and I would have liked them as specimens, but I could not deprive the little fellows of their lives, so we moved off and the mother then flew towards them and led them further away to a place of safety. Our next find was a set of four eggs of the semipalmated plover. The nest, as usual in the case of plovers and sandpipers, was simply a hollow in the sand, lined with a few blades of grass, and ‘the eggs are not unlike smaller varieties of the kildeer plover—ashy clay, spotted with blackish brown. ‘This species is more numerous In North-West Canada. 15, on the banks of the North Saskatchewan. On walking through some long grass around the lake we flushed a gadwall duck off its nest; it flew into the water amongst the other ducks, many of which were swimming about with their young ones. The nest consisted of a hollow scooped out of the sand, which was snugly lined with down, and contained nine eggs, which are pale buff and very similar to those of the European widgeon. The eggs were partly incubated and average in size 2°10x1°60. As it was one o'clock, we sat down and had our lunch of antelope sandwiches, but we were so thirsty we had some diffi- culty in disposing of them, and had to go down to the lake and take a couple of handfuls of alkaline water to wash the sandwiches down. After resting awhile and watching the various movements of the ducks, geese and other waterfowl on the lake, we got up and followed the lake round its north- ern shore, disturbing numerous marbled godwits, avosets, kil- deers, phalaropes, and several species of small sandpipers we could not identify; we had not brought a gun with us, or else we might have secured several rare species of sandpipers. We spent two hours in rambling round the shores of the lake, and, finding no more eggs, we struck out across the prairie in the direction of home. We met a prairie wolf coming to- wards the lake ; he did not turn back, but kept a few hundred yards to the north of us, he kept stopping and looking at us and then ran along a little farther and stopped again, and eyed us once more; we hallooed at him, and he ran off towards the lake: probably he was after a duck for his evening meal. While tramping across the prairie we startled up a small bird from the grass and were pleased to find a nest of that rare bird, Sprague’s pipit. The nest was like that of a shore lark or longspur, and made of dry grass. It was sunk below the surface of the surrounding soil, under shelter of a tussock of grass, and contained five eggs. They are greyish white, freckled all over with purplish grey, averaging in size 0.90x0.62. Another clutch of five eggs in my collection was taken near Crescent Lake, May 31st, 1890. They are greyish- 76 Bird-Nesting white, and the purple grey freckles are so thick as to almost conceal the ground colour. This nest also contained an egg of the cowbird. One of my collectors who has visted me this week in Toronto, who lives fifteen miles. north of Regina, Assiniboia. informs me that Sprague’s pipit, also called Mis- souri skylark, is plentiful around his farm, and can be heard almost anytime early in June, singing and soaring in the sky. During my trip through the North-West I do not remember having heard this bird; its song is said to be so much like that of the European skylark with which I am so well acquainted that I should not have failed to have noticed it. The eggs of this bird are scarce in collections, but as it is known to breed in Manitoba and Assiniboia, near the homes of some of my collectors, I hope before long to be able to secure a number of clutches of the eggs of this bird. Dr. Coues gives an interesting account of the soaring habits of this species, and they correspond exactly with those of the European skylark, a bird with which I am very familiar, and whose powerful song I have often listened to as I have lain down in some meadow or moorland of heather in the north of England, watching the skylark soaring, and singing all the time, until it becomes a mere speck in the sky, and its song does not cease until it descends to the earth again. Dr. Coues, in writing about the Missouri skylark, speaks of its wonder- ful soaring action, and its inimitable, matchless song during the breeding season. He says: “It is no wonder Audubon grew enthusiastic in describing it. Rising from its nest, or from its grassy bed, this plain-looking little bird, clad in the simplest colours and making but a speck in the boundless ex- panse, mounts straight up on tremulous wings till lost to view in the blue ether, and then sends back to earth a song of glad- ness that seems to come from the sky itself, to cheer the weary, give hope to the disheartened, and turn the most in- different, for the moment at least, from sordid thoughts. No other bird-music in our land compares with the wonderful strains of this songster; there is something not of earth in the melody coming from above, yet from no visible source. In North-West Canada. ue The notes are simply indescribable, but once heard they can never be forgotten. Their volume and penetration are truly wonderful; they are neither loud nor strong, yet the whole air seems filled with the tender strains, and the delightful melody continues long unbroken. The song is only heard for a brief period in the summer, ceasing when the inspiration of the love season is over, and it is only uttered when the birds are soaring.” It is not a little singular that the Missouri skylark should have so long continued to be rare in collections, since it is very abundant in the extensive region which it inhabits. The first specimen was taken by Audubon at Fort Union, June 19th, 1843, and long remained unique. Some years after- wards another specimen was taken by Captain Blackiston, on the Saskatchewan, and which is now preserved in the Smith- sonian Institute at Washington. We carefully packed this set of rare eggs and tramped homewards. ‘The only nest we found on our return journey was that of the western vesper sparrow, with four eggs; they are similar to those of the com- mon vesper sparrow found in the east, but are somewhat smaller; the nest was also similar. We came across two large flocks of cowbirds; there must have been a hundred in each flock. They are known here as buffalo birds, from their habit of following the herds of buffalo. They frequent the ranches, and are always seen amongst the cattle, perching on their backs and feeding on the insects found around cattle; they become very tame and will hardly get out of the way. Like the European cuckoo, they lay their eggs in other birds’ nests, and know nothing of the cares of bringing up their young, leaving this for other birds to attend to; and, like the Euro- pean cuckoo, the cowbird lays a very small egg for the size of the bird, and the habits of both species in regard to nidifica- tion are very similar. I have several times found two cow- bird’s eggs in one nest and the eggs so much resembled each other as to leave no doubt as to their having been laid by the same bird; but they usually only lay one egg in each nest, and probably lay five or six eggs during the season. Dr. 78 Bird-Nesting Couse’s account of the habits of this bird is very interesting : he says, “It is interesting to observe the female cowbird ready to lay ; she becomes disquieted, betrays unwonted excitement, and ceases her busy search for food with her companions. At length she separates from the flock and sallies forth to recon- noitre, anxiously indeed, for her case is urgent and she has no home. How obtrusive is the sad analogy! She flies to some thicket, or hedgerow, or other common resort of birds, where something teaches her—perhaps experience—nests will be found. Stealthily and in perfect. silence she flits along, peer- ing furtively, alternately elated or dejected, into the depths of the foliage ; she espies a nest, but the owner's head peeps over the brim and she must pass on. Now, however, comes her chance, there is the very nest she wants, and the owner not at home. She disappears for a few minutes, and it is almost another bird that comes out of the bush. Her business done and trouble over, she chuckles her self-congratulations, rustles her plumage to adjust it firmly, and flies back to her associ- ates. They know what has happened, but are discreet enough to say nothing.” It does not appear that the cowbird ever at- tempts to take forcible possession of a nest; she lays her egg while the owners of the nest are away. On their return, the owners of the nest hold anxious consultation in this emer- gency, as their sorrowful cries and distracted actions plainly indicate. If the nest was empty before, they generally desert it; sometimes even after there is an egg of their own in the nest, they have nerve enough to let it go, and desert the nest, rather than assume the hateful task of incubating the strange one; but if the female has already laid an egg or two the pair generally settle into the reluctant conviction that there is no help for it, they quiet down, and things go on as if nothing had happened. Not always, however, will they desert even an empty nest: for some birds have discovered a way out of the difficulty—it is the most ingenious device imaginable, and the more we think of it the more astonishing it seems. They build a two-story nest, leaving the obnoxious egg in the base- ment. The summer yellow bird has been known to do this. In North-West Canada. 79 Another summer yellow bird was known to build a story to her nest, leaving the cowbird’s egg in the cellar, and then, finding another cowbird’s egg violating her premises, she forth- with built a second story, and finally laid her own eggs on the top flat, leaving the two cowbird’s eggs in the two lower stories to addle. The eggs of the cowbird vary considerably both in - size, colour and markings, but are so common and well known as not to need a description here. SO Bird-Nesting CHAPTER XII. UNE 183th.—This morning I visited the marshes bordering Rush Lake, and followed the creek for two miles, disturbing numerous broods of young © encae ducks, which were swimming in the creek. If I Te had visited this creek early in May I should have been (co able to collect scores of ducks’ eggs, as this appeared to be a favourite haunt of the different species of ducks. The following August, after my visit to this place, Macdonald wrote me as follows: “ About two weeks after you left, mowers were set to work about the point where the creek ends, and they exposed in the vicinity close upon one hundred nests, all ducks’. The creek was for some weeks a sight to delight the naturalist or sportsman, being literally filled with young ducks of the various species. Once fairly feathered and able to fly, they took wing for the lake, which at present is covered with all manner of ducks, geese, swans, and other water-fowl. The season for geese opened the 15th of August, but ducks and grouse do not come in until September Ist. In the meantime there is a great cleaning up of guns.” No doubt Rush Lake is a paradise for sportsmen in the fall, for there are myriads of wild-fowl on the lake, and Iam informed that 100 geese and ducks a day is considered only a fair bag for one gun, and any one very enthusiastic might kill three times this number. Snow geese, called waveys by the natives and sportsmen, are exceedingly numerous, so are Canada geese, white -fronted geese, Hutchins’, Ross’s, and Brant geese, swans, and over a score varieties of ducks, to say nothing of the cormorants, pelicans, gulls, grebes and other birds. Truly Rush Lake must be a wonderful sight in the fall of the year. Along the banks of the creek I started a marsh harrier, and found its nest in a patch of rushes. The nest was made of reeds on the ground and was about four inches thick and one foot in diameter: the cen- ‘NYVOI13d SLIHM ON 1) a ! it HIT RANE W ISAN GNV 4MVH HSYVW Hu Mas Loy efit In North-West Canada. 81 tre of the nest was hollow, caused by the weight of the five egos it contained. The eggs are plain bluish white without markings, and measure about 1.85x1.40. Although I saw marsh harriers every day, and at every place I stopped be- tween Winnipeg and Rush Lake, their nests were hard to find, owing to the birds being so wary, and as they make their nests on the open prairie they can easily see objects approach- ing and fly up off their nests while the intruder is some dis- tance away. The marsh hawk is abundant in Miner county, Dakota, and last season 1 received a number of sets from my collector there, amongst them is a set of four eggs which are well spotted with brown all over, this 1s the only set in which the eggs have markings out of a series of over forty eggs, all the rest are plain bluish or greenish white, but in some cases the eggs are stained more or less. The usual number of eggs found in one nest is five or six, although I have a elutch of seven eggs that were collected in Manitoba, June 15th, 1890. In the North-West the marsh harriers in brown plumage are much more numerous than those in blue plumage. In fact I only saw five or six of the latter, although I must have seen dozens in brown plumage. In some parts of Manitoba it is impossible to walk a mile across the prairie without seeing one or more marsh hawks, and in crossing over the prairie on the railway, these species were frequently seen from the car win- dows. The bird may be recognized at any reasonable distance by its peculiar configuration, produced by the length of the wings and tail, its easy sailing flight, the singular bluish and white coloration of the adult male, and the conspicuous white patch on the root of the tail of the female and young. The marsh harrier belongs to the “ignoble” birds of the falconers, but is neither a weakling nor a coward, as any one may easily satisfy himself by handling a winged bird. It lacks the splendid action that sures success in the pursuit of feathered game, to the dashing falcons and true hawks: with all its stroke of wing, it acquires no such resistless impetus. Audubon says that “it sometimes attacks partridges and ploy- ers, but its ordinary food consists of field mice, small reptiles, F 82 Bird-Nesting and insects. It is particularly fond of frogs. These gogele- eyed creatures suffer more from the harriers than from all the school boys that ever stone them on Saturday afternoon. This bird is called harrier on account of its method of beating, or quartering the ground when in search of prey, putting one in mind of the evolutions of the hound similarly engaged. The clutch of five egos just collected were blown and then packed in a box, and I then examined the far end of the creek, when IT was successful in flushing a pintail duck from its nest of down, containing nine greyish-olive eggs. The nest, as usual, consisted of a hollow in the ground, lined with down from the breasts of the birds, the top of the nest being level with the surrounding soil. The pintail is one of the most elegant and eraceful ducks found in the North-West, and can be easily recognized by its.long-pointed tail, and its long slender neck. The pintail is abundant in Iceland, from which country I have just received a number of clutches, with beautiful nests of down, together with nests and eggs of harlequin duck, goos- ander, long tail, Barrow’s golden eye, redbreasted merganser, seaup, and other species of the duck family which breed in Iceland, as well as in North America. As it was nearly dinner time, I returned to the station-house, and on my way disturbed a Bartram’s sandpiper off her nest and four eggs; this clutch was prettily marked with large umber brown spots, and pur- ple grey splashes on a clear buff ground. Macdonald informed me he had seen a whooping crane fly- ing towards the lake, and asked if I had seen any around there, which I had not. While at dinner he told me of a nest of the whooping crane he once found on the banks of the North Sas- katchewan: he said he remembered that nest well, as he and his brother came near losing their lives on the same day he found the nest. Seven years ago, just before the rebellion broke out amongst the North-West Indians, Mac. and his bro- ther were camping near Battleford, on the North Saskatche- wan, and were out on a tramp over the prairie, when they came across a nest of the whooping crane containing two eggs, which they left in the nest intending to call for them on their In North-West Canada. 83 return. On reaching the river they walked along its banks for some distance, when they found a canoe, so they decided to cross the river and explore the banks on the other side. Soon afterwards they came across an Indian, who was sat down fish- ing, and as they knew the Indian language they walked towards him: he started to use threatening language, and said the In- dians were going to kill all the white men on this side of the river before many more days had elapsed, so the eldest Mac- donald told him he had better commence the killing now, and therewith drew his revolver from his hip pocket. The In- dian immediately sprang to his feet and bolted through the bushes, and Mae. fired into the air to frighten him, which caused the Indian to quicken his pace, glancing around as he ran. After he had gone, the two brothers considered what they had better do, and decided to return to the canoe and cross the river again, as rumours of an Indian uprising had been talked of for some days, and they began to think, perhaps, there was some truth in the Cree’s threats. On crossing the river they dragged the canoe up on the banks, taking the paddle along with them: they ascended an elevation a mile away, and glancing back in the direction the Indian had gone, they saw not far off an Indian encampment ‘of over a score tepees. So they lay down behind the brow of the hill, concealing them- selves ina buffalo wallow. With the aid of their field glass, they plainly saw the Indians were in a state of excitement, running from one tepee to another, and presently over a dozen bucks were seen hastening towards the place where the two brothers had met the Indian fishing. As they came nearer and nearer, their voices and yells could be heard: presently they reached the spot opposite to where the canoe was, where they came to a halt for a few minutes, when one of their number was seen to be stripping himself of his buckskins, and a few seconds afterwards he plunged into the river with a splash, and swam over to where the canoe lay, evidently intending to paddle it back to bring his companions over, but on finding the pad- dle missing he swam back again, and as the two Maes. thougat they had better retire unobserved, they hastened back 84 Bird-Nesting to their tent, which was five miles away. That same after- noon they packed up and drove towards Saskatoon, and on ar- riving there, two days later, they heard that a number of whites had been killed near Battleford, and felt thankful that they had so narrowly escaped a similar fate. Soon afterwards the rebellion broke out amongst the North-West Indians, and after severe fighting for several weeks, the Indians were defeated. and their leaders, Big Bear, Riel, and others, taken prisoners, not before Canada had lost many of her brave young volunteers. On inquiring what became of the eggs of the whooping crane, Mac. told me that in their excitement they were for- gotten, so were probably hatched. He described the nest as consisting of a flat mass of rushes and grass, about three feet in diameter. The whooping crane breeds throughout Mani- toba, Assiniboia, and the Saskatchewan, northward. On June 17th, at Oak Lake, I bought a clutch of two eggs that were collected by a boy on the prairie, north of Oak Lake: these are yellowish drab, blotched with pale brown and greyish purple, and measure 3.90x2.53 and 3.95x2.55. Another clutch of two eggs in my collection were taken near the mouth of the Red River of the North, near the shore of Lake Win- nipeg; here are extensive swamps and small lakes. The ereat marshes about the mouth of the Red River extend for miles, and are probably the largest duck grounds in the North- West. Here, in the fall of the year, ducks and geese congre- gate in myriads, while insummer these swamps offer suitable nesting-places for whooping cranes, little brown cranes, bitterns, western grebes, rednecked, horned, and eared grebes, also three or four species of gulls, and a number of varieties of ducks and rails, and other birds. The eggs of the whooping crane are large and attractive; the ground colour is light brownish drab, some having a yellowish or olive buff tinge ; they are blotched, spotted, and splashed chiefly around the largest end with pale chocolate brown and purple grey shell markings; some eges have little elevations on them like warts. Inaseries of twenty eggs before me, the largest measures 4.30x2.28 and 4,25x2.37. These eggs are very elongated, and pointed at the smaller end; In North-West Canada. 85 they were taken in Montana, June 3rd, 1888. The nest was found in a marsh, and consisted of a mass of rushes, about a foot high, and three feet in diameter. The cranes never lay more than two eggs, though some authors say the number of eggs laid are two or three, but I never heard of any one taking a clutch of three eggs, and all the clutches I have had passing through my hands contained but two eggs. This tall and stately bird has the most imposing appearance of any bird in this country. The adult is pure white, with black-tipped wings, and stands nearly five feet high. Dinner being over, I went to the farm at Rush Lake as pre- arranged, for this afternoon we were to visit a den of prairie wolves who for some time had caused a deal of trouble around the farm by killing several lambs, but the day of reckoning had come, so the farm manager, myself and two cowboys set out with guns, and the boys took a spade each with them. We were also accompanied by the three hounds and two setters, and presented a formidable party. We found the den two miles south-west of Rush Lake up the side of a gorge, and the dogs tried to dislodge the occupants, but their howling and barking only made the inmates retire to the far end of their den. There was nothing left but to dig the wolves out, so calling the dogs off the cowboys set to, one enlarging the entrance to the burrow while the other commenced to dig a few yards from the entrance, intending to let daylight into their den from the top. As this was slow work, some time elapsed before the boys made much progress, and the dogs were laid down a few yards in front of the mouth of the burrow, and the manager and myself were also sitting down conversing about wolves, when we heard the cowboy at the entrance to the den hollow out, and as we glanced up a wolf dashed by us, and another imme- diately bounded out of the den, and the cowboy struck at it with his spade, but missed, and before we could lay hold of our guns the dogs were up and bounding after the wolves as fast as they could go, and we were afraid to fire on them for fear we might hurt the dogs; in fact they took us so much by surprise that the wolves were some distance away before 86 Bird-Nesting we could get on our feet. We ran after the dogs down the gorge and on reaching the open prairie we could hear a tre- mendous howling and barking, and there a short distance away was the wolf at bay surrounded by the dogs. On arriving at the scene we found both the wolf and the dogs bleeding. The manager encouraged the dogs, and they then made a savage attack on the wolf. One seized him by the hind leg and one of the largest hounds had hold of his throat: the poor brute was outnumbered, as there were five to one: they soon pulled him down and his piteous howls began to get fainter. The manager tried to call the dogs off, but they were too eager in the fight, but as the wolf had ceased to howl we beat the dogs off and found the wolf almost dead, and one of the cowboys shot him through the head to put him out of his misery. His skin was too badly torn to make a specimen of it, so we left him for the turkey vultures. We found the dogs bleeding from several wounds, so we took them to a stream and the manager bathed their wounds and tied pieces of his handkerchief round the leg of one of the hounds which the wolf had badly bitten. The prairie wolf.is about the size of a sheep dog, and the fur is ashy grey, and the tail is bushy. They are very plenti- ful in this district, and burrow like foxes. They are exceed- ingly swift of foot. They never attack man, even when a number of them are together. They live on birds and small animals, and sometimes attack lambs and young sheep. There is another species of wolf found in this district, and it is especially numerous in the wooded Red Deer River region. This is the large grey wolf. It is also found around Lake Winnipeg, in fact it frequents all the timber lands stretching between Lake Superior and the Rocky Mountains. This species, like the wolves of Russia, has been known to attack human beings when pressed by hunger. The grey wolf is as large as a Newfoundland dog. One was killed by one of my collectors, near Shoal Lake, Manitoba, in the following man- ner: During the spring of this year he had lost several lambs, by a wolf coming at night to his farm and taking them away. At last this wolf got so bold as to visit the farm every ‘ATOM BIMIVHd BHL JO HLvagd Dreenintcrn > oe hee Ser ts hy “A In North-West Canada. 87 night, with the general result of the disappearance of a lamb or young sheep. So one night my collector and his father and brother laid ready with guns for the appearance of Mr. Wolf. They tied a sheep to a fence, and erected a screen of timber close to the sheep, and behind this they waited the approach of the wolf. They were not disappointed, for they at last saw his form approaching cautiously. The sheep be- gan to bleat and tried to break away from the cord, and just as the wolf was about to seize its prey, the father and two brothers poured a volley of shot into the careass of the wolf, which caused him to bite the ground in agony. Then loading their guns again they gave him another dose, which stretched him lifeless on the ground. After this they were not troubled with wolves again. The grey wolf sometimes chases deer, Sir John Richardson saw one at Poimt Lake chasing a fine buck reindeer. The wolf ran down the deer and disabled it by a bite on the flank. An Indian, who was concealed on the borders of the lake, ran out and cut the deer’s throat with his knife, when the wolf at once relinquished his prey and sneaked off. In the chase the poor deer urged its flight by great bounds, which for a time exceeded the speed of the wolf, but it stopped so frequently to gaze on its relentless enemy, that the latter, toilmg on at a long gallop, with its tongue lolling out of its mouth, gradually came up. After each hasty look, the poor deer redoubled its efforts to escape ; but either exhausted by fatigue, or enervated by fear, it became, just before it was overtaken, scarcely able to keep its feet. The erey wolves destroy many foxes, which they run down if they perceive them on the prairie at a distance from their burrows; they carry them off in their mouths, as easily as a terrier does a rat. When buffaloes were plentiful on the prairies, bands of wolves were always found hanging on the skirts of the bison herds, preying on the young and sickly calves, or on any old buffalo, which could not keep up with the herd. Wolves never attacked the full-grown animals, for hunters state they often used to see wolves walking through a herd of bulls without exciting the least alarm, and the 88 Bird-Nesting Indians, when cautiously stealing towards the buffalo for the purpose of shooting them, often covered their heads and backs with a wolf skin, knowing from experience that they would be suffered to approach near in that guise. Grey wolves have been known to visit a sportsman’s camp during the night and carry off one of his dogs, and some years ago a poor Indian woman was strangled to death near her wigwam by a wolf, before the eyes of her husband, who was hastening to her assistance. On our return to Rush Lake, I flushed a McCown’s long- spur from its nest and five eggs, and we disturbed several marbled godwits, curlew, willets and grouse, but the dogs ran along in front of us and disturbed the birds, so that we were unable to find their nests. I had my supper at the farm, and spent the evening there, until dark, when I returned to the station-house. In North-West Canada. 89 CHAPTER XIII. =i A UNE 14th.—This being my last day at Rush Lake, CP \(i@/ as I intended to return in the evening to Moose- a jaw, I was out soon after breakfast and ascended i oer the hilly prairies south of Rush Lake. My first CE find was a nest of the sharp-tailed grouse with eleven Ss eggs. The bird was flushed from a patch of long grass, and the nest was a hollow in the ground, lined with grass and feathers. The eggs are deep tawny buff, speckled with darker brown. Soon afterwards I found a nest of Me- Cown’s longspur containing three eggs: these eggs were grey- ish white, blotched with dark purplish brown. Saw a turkey buzzard and a pair of marsh harriers; both species evidently had nests close by, but I could not find them. I was disap- pointed at not finding the snowy owl around Rush Lake, as | was informed by Macdonald and others that they were occa- sionally seen, and was shown a fine stuffed specimen at the station-house that was shot late in the spring of 1889; this bird was a female. Though they are occasionally seen in summer at Rush Lake, they become more plentiful in the fall and winter when the ducks and geese are migrating south. Macdonald, who has spent some years in the North Saskatche- wan, never saw a nest of this bird, but he has seen the birds in summer, so that it is probable a few snowy owls do not re- tire to within the arctic circle to breed, but nest further, south, on the marshy prairies of Manitoba and Assiniboia, almost reaching the northern border of the United States. It is reported as probably nesting on the Island of Anticosti, in the Gulf of St, Lawrence, as it certainly does in Labrador and Newfoundland. It is also recorded as‘ a rare summer resident around Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba. In Great Britain, an instance is recorded of its breeding near Banff, in Scotland. The nest containing young birds was found by the 90 bird-Nesting Scotch naturalist, Thomas Edwards. It is a common summer resident in Iceland, Norway, Lapland and Finland. The snowy owl frequents marshes, and its habits are similar to the short-eared owl, and, like that bird, it makes its nest on the ground. the stream. ‘The burrow was two feet from the top of the bank, and penetrated three feet into the cliff, where I found the six glossy white eggs resting on a bed of fish scales and bones. The eggs of the belted kingfisher are as large as those of the European roller, averaging 1.35x1.05. Walking along the banks, I came to a place where the stream drained a pond, and disturbed a Carolina crake out of some rushes ; it swam about with a jerking movement, like the Eng- lish water hen. I took off my boots and waded to the rushes and found its nest containing three eggs. Here several red- winged starlings had nests containing four and five eggs each. A killdeer was seen running round the edge of the pond, and it took me some time to find the four eggs; the nest simply consisted of a hollow scraped into the ground by the birds and lined with bits of grass. The eggs of the killdeer are very attractive. I have twelve clutches of four eggs. The ground colour is drab or clay- coloured, thickly spotted and blotched with blackish-brown and umber; in some eggs the markings have a scratchy pat- tern. At the far side of the pond I flushed a green-winged teal off its nest and nine buff-coloured eggs. The nest was a mere depression in the ground amongst the grass, and lined with down. Thisis a handsome little duck and a favourite amongst sportsmen. I also flushed a female American widgeon, but could not tell exactly where it flew from. I searched amongst the grass for twenty minutes without finding its nest, so gave it up. I had now reached the stream at the other side of the pond, which was still fringed with bushes and small trees, and flushed a night-hawk from under a bush, and there found its two marbled eggs laid on a dead leaf. The eggs are rather handsome, greyish white, mottled with dark grey and olive. This bird is common in Manitoba and Dakota, and I have a NEAR VIRDEN. In North-West Canada. 143 number of clutches that were collected here last summer. The egos of the western night-hawk are a trifle smaller and paler than those of the common night-hawk found in the east. A sparrow-hawk came dashing down the stream and flew close by, it evidently did not notice me standing behind a bush. Bronzed grackles and red-winged starlings nests were in sight most of the time—many of the grackles’ nests containing young birds. I saw a lesser redpole and tried to follow it to its nest, but was not successful. This species breeds in the British Islands, and is common as far south as Yorkshire, in England, where I have frequently found its nest and eggs. It also is very common around York, where it builds its nest in hawtkorn hedges; I never found a nest containing more than five eggs. On a table before me are ten nests and eggs of the redpole from England. The nests are made externally of dried grasses, mixed with moss, they are compact, neat structures, and deep inside ; they are lined in some cases with sheep’s wool, others are lined with hair and feathers. The eggs do not vary much, and are easily recognized by an experienced eye. They are bluish-green, spotted chiefly around the larger end with reddish-brown, the markings often forming a zone round the butt end of the eggs. Some winters, large flocks of redpoles pass through Ontario, accom- panied by pine and evening grosbeaks. During the winter of 1890-91, I saw large flocks north of Toronto. At the same time I saw-a flock of over fifty evening grosbeaks feeding on the ground under some pine trees ; a few days later I obtained a fine pair that were shot in Toronto. Later on I purchased a pair of pine grosbeaks that had been shot in one of the prinei- pal streets in Toronto, where they were feeding on the moun- tain ash berries. A boy also brought me a handsome male pine grosbeak he had shot with a catapult. During this same winter a number of pine grosbeaks were caught alive and kept in cages. The following May a pair built a nest in a cage and laid four eggs; I bought two of the eggs from Mr. 144 Bird-Nesting Porter, of Toronto, the owner of the birds. The eggs are greenish-blue, spotted around the butt end of the eggs with dark brown and lilac, and measure 1.05 x 75 and 1.02 x 73. These eggs are a trifle larger than several clutches I have from Lapland. I have a series of twenty eggs of the pine erosbeak from Tornea, Lapland, consisting of five sets of four eggs each, so that four appears to be the regular number of egos toa clutch. A clutch of four eggs before me, collected at Tornea, Lapland, June 13th, 1890, are very handsome. The ground colour is bright greenish-blue, and they are heavily spotted with purplish black and pale lavender shell spots. At the larger ends are other spots of dark purple, and the mark- ings almost form zones around the butt ends of the eggs. Another clutch of four eggs collected in Lapland, June 7th, 1890, are pale-bluish with a glaucous shade, they are spotted with purple-brown and purple-grey, chiefly about the butt end. The nests are built in small trees and made of twigs and rootlets. Mr. Porter, who owns the birds that laid the eggs in captivity, remembers the pine grosbeak nesting some years ago near Lake Simcoe. He says the birds used to come around his house every winter and leave early in spring, with one exception when a pair remained and built a nest in a fir tree in his garden. ‘This is the only instance I know of their breeding in Ontario. They retire to the north to breed around Hudson’s Bay and Labrador, a few remaining to nest in New Brunswick and around the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The even- ing grosbeak is also a handsome bird; as before stated, several flocks visited Toronto during the winter of 1890-91. This species breeds in the Northern Rocky Mountains, but its eggs are almost unknown in collections and are consequently very valuable. It is reported as a common resident in the forests of Washington Territory. A nest of four eggs, on the point of hatching, was found in Yolo County, California, May 10th, 1886, but could not be preserved. These eggs are said to be similar to those of the black-headed grosbeak. This species breeds in British Columbia, and when that country be- In North-West Canada. 145 comes better populated and can boast of half a dozen resident oologists, its nest and eggs may become better known. Like the pine and evening grosbeaks, the red crossbill and the white-wing- ed crossbill sometimes visit Ontario in flocks during the winter months. They frequent the gardens in the outskirts of the towns, and are shot by boys with catapults. Some years ago a pair of red crossbills bred at Kew Gardens, three miles east of Toronto. The nest and eggs were taken early in April, 1884. This species is known to breed in the United States, in Minnesota, Northern New England, and from thence north- ward throughout Canada. Its nest and eggs have also been taken in the Lower Hudson Valley and in Pennsylvania. The egos are laid while the snow is on the ground in March. The white-winged crossbill is a summer resident near Shoal Lake, Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba. A set of four egos in my col- lection doubtless belongs to this species. They were taken near Shoal Lake, Manitoba, March 27th, 1887. The nest was in a pine tree, twenty feet up, and the eggs are white, with a faint greenish tinge ; they are spotted at the larger ends with dark brown, and have also numerous speckles of lavender grey, which almost form a zone around the butt end of the eggs. The egos of this species are like those of the European and parrot crossbill in my collection, and they are not unlike egos of the European greenfinch in general appearance, but are larger. The four egos of the white-winged crossbill before me average 0.78x0.55. Dr. Brewer describes a saucer-shaped nest of this bird. It was made of lichens, encased in spruce twigs, lined with hair and bark shreds, four inches in diameter, with a cavity an inch and a half deep. The egos were pale blue, spotted at the large end with fine dots of black and ashy hlac. This nest was taken in New Brunswick. The white-winged crossbill has on several occasions been obtained in Great Britain. Mr. Hastings enumerates several instances in which they were observed. On one occasion “a large flock” made its appearance near Banff, Scotland, in 1859. He also says, “Some years ago Dr. Dewar, of Glasgow, when six hundred miles off Newfoundland, observed a number J 146 Bird-Nesting of these birds crossing the Atlantic before a stiff westerly breeze. Many alighted on the rigging, and ten or twelve were secured.” I now struck out across the prairie, and examined a slough fringed with rushes, and found a nest of the short-billed marsh wren, containing five eggs. The nest was like that of the long-billed marsh wren, which were also numerous. The egos of the short-billed species are glossy white. Soon after- wards I found a nest containing seven chocolate-coloured eges of the long-billed marsh wren. There were several empty nests around, and it is well known that the male marsh wren continues building a number of nests, while the females are incubating the eggs. The number of nests frequently observed in a small piece of marsh, within a few yards of each other, is astonishing, and apparently out of all proportion to the size of the colony inhabiting the patch of reeds. Several kildeers were observed near the slough, but I could not find their nests, although I lay down and concealed myself, in hopes that they would return, so that I could startle them off their nests. A ruddy duck had a brood of seven young ones, which she led away to the far side of the slough. A clutch of six eggs of this bird before me are creamy buff, with a tinely granu- lated surface. They are large for the size of the bird, averag- ing 2.50x1.75. This set was taken in South Dakota, June 14th, 1891. The nest was like that of a coot, a large structure of floating rushes anchored to growing rushes. As it was after tive o'clock, I turned back, crossing the prairie towards Virden. I flushed a prairie horned lark off its nest and four eggs, and not many yards from this nest I also startled a chestnut-collared longspur; the bird flew up, and, searching the spot, I soon found its nest containing five eggs. They are greyish white, spotted with dark purple brown, and blotched with neutral tint. [had now more eggs than my box would hold, so I wrapped some of them up in my handkerchief and carried them in this way. After half an hour's walk across the prairie, the houses of Virden began to appear, and in pass- ing some bushes near the village I discovered a nest and four In North-West Canada. 147 egos of the clay-coloured sparrow. The eggs are not unlike those of the chipping sparrow, being greenish blue, spotted at the largest ends with brown. After a refreshing wash and a good supper, I again strolled out, this time going north of Virden, towards a stretch of small timber. On my way I passed an Indian tepee, and the squaws were busy getting their supper ready, and were roasting a prairie chicken over a fire of sticks. On reaching the out- skirts of the wood I startled a meadow lark from the root of a bush, and found its nest and five eggs. They are white, spotted with rusty brown and purple. The nest was made of erass, covered over at the top, and with a side entrance. I came across a tree with a large hole about twenty feet up, and, striking the tree trunk, a small hawk flew out and began flying around screaming. It was a sparrow hawk. The tree was easy to climb, and, putting my hand into the hole, I felt four eggs, which were quite warm. I drew them out, and, putting them into my pocket, I descended to the ground. This was a pretty set, ground colour rich buff, blotched with reddish brown. They were shghtly incubated. The sparrow hawk is plentiful throughout Manitoba, and he is a gallant, dashing little warrior. He often swoops down upon thrushes and other birds almost as large as himself. He is very destructive to sparrows and other small birds. Like the European kestril, the American sparrow hawk has a h bit of hovering almost motionless in mid-air, when he suddenly drops down upon a field mouse or small bird. This species often lays its eggs in a deserted woodpecker’s hole, and sometimes occupies the old nest of a crow or magpie. The eggs of this bird are very much like those of the lesser kestril of Europe. A series of fifty egos before me show the usual variations found amongst falcons’ eggs. The ground colour varies from cream to yellowish-red or pinky-buff, blotched, spotted and clouded with chestnut-brown and cin- amon. They average in size 1.85 x 1.12. The sun was fast going down behind the western horizon, and the small birds, thrushes, meadow larks, warblers, vireos, 148 Bird-Nesting and vesper sparrows, were singing before going to rest. The whip-poor-will had begun to call, and the nighthawks were screeching high in the air. I came out of the wood and turned my steps towards Virden, and as I was tired out, on reaching the hotel, I soon retired to my room. After examin- ing the number of clutches I Had collected during the day, and entering up my notes, I laid down and was soon asleep. WEST OF VIRDEN. IMCcCOWNS LONGSPUR 2 SNOW-BUNTING 3 LAPLAND BUNTING 4 CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR 5 BRONZEO GRACKLE 6 BAIRD'S SPARROW 7 CLAY-COLOURED SPARROW 8 RAVEN iS) (rlzye ako) ele 10 RED-WINGED STARLING ll GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET 12 RUSTY GRACKLE 13 NUTCRACKER 14. WHITE THROATED SPARROW 1S MAG PIE 16 PRAIRIE-HORNEO LARK 17 SHORE LARK (8 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL In North-West Canada. 149 CHAPTER XIX. e op sit kW UNE 17th—Soon after breakfast, the train came aN along from the west, and in a few minutes I was on my way to Oak Lake, arriving here about 9 fey) o'clock. Having secured a room at the hotel op- oe posite the station, I hired a horse and buggy and Le instructed the hotel proprietor to make me up a lunch to take along with me. Having enquired my way to the lake, I drove away from the village. Oak Lake is situated about five miles south-west of the station of that name. It was a lovely June morning, and I felt in splendid form and very light-hearted as I drove along the winding trail, south- ward. The balmy atmosphere was laden with perfume from sweet-scented flowers, and several bobolinks were singing mer- rily along the roadside. I had to pass through a bushy district of scrub oak, and noticed a pair of Swainson’s buzzards circling over the trees, so | made up my mind to examine this place on my return; being anxious to put in a good day at the lake, I drove onward, After going along several trails that only led to farm houses, and having to turn back more than once, the glisten- ing lake at last came in view. It appeared to be about five miles long by two broad. On its northern shores are several bluffs, so I tied the horse to a tree and explored some of them. I was soon saluted by a number of bronzed grackles, and presently came upon a num- ber of nests which mostly contained young birds, some, how- ever, only contained two or three fresh eggs. A crow came flying over my head, chased and tormented by a pair of king birds. The king bird is well named, “tyrant fly-catcher,” they are very pugnacious during the breeding season, attacking and driving off birds much larger than themselves whenever they come anywhere near their nests. My first find of importance was a nest and four eggs of the clay-coloured sparrow. The 150 Bird-Nesting male bird was singing, perched on a twig, and close by I flush- ed the female off her nest which was built in a shrub two feet above the ground. The nest was similar to that of the chip- ping sparrow, and the eges closely resemble those of that species. In a series of 20 eggs, however, it is noticable that the spots are lighter coloured than those on the chipping spar- row’s eggs. The eggs of the clay-coloured sparrow are bluish- green, spotted at the largest end with sienna-brown. The bird never lays more than four eggs which measure about 0.60 x 0.50. After gomg through the bluffs I led the horse down to the margin of the lake and allowed him to quench his thirst, after which I let him feed on the grass, while I examined the rushes that fringed the lake. On my approach a number of western grebes swam out of the rushes, making a cackling kind of a noise. I went back to the buggy and put on my long rubber boots which I had fortunately brought along with me. I then made for the rushes and Soon found five or six nests of the western grebe. Two of the nests contained young birds just hatched, and another nest contained five eggs on the point of hatching, a fourth nest contained five eggs partly in- cubated, but I was able to make good specimens of them. There were two or three other empty nests. The nests were composed of decayed sedges matted together, and were about a foot and a half in diameter, and floated on the top of the water, anchored to the growing rushes. The eggs are dirty yellowish white, stained with brown, by coming in contact with the decayed vegetation which the nests are composed of; size 2.48x1.55. The western grebe is a graceful bird, and an expert diver and swimmer. It is the largest of the North American grebes. It breeds plentifully on several of the lakes in Manitoba, and especially at Shoal Lake. A great number also breed at Devil’s Lake in North Dakota. All the grebes have a habit of covering their eggs with weeds before leaving them, and some nests I found at Long Lake were quite warm, caused by the fermentation of decayed damp rushes, which reeked with steam like a manure heap. In North-West Canada. 151 When a grebe is going to leave its nest, it pulls the weeds over its eggs, and after covering them slides into the water and swims off, but when the birds are startled off their nests sud- denly, they have not time to cover the eggs. The only nests of eggs I found not covered with weeds were those I startled the birds from. Further round the lake I saw a pair of red-necked grebes swimming about. Foster's terns, common terns, and ring- billed gulls were also numerous, but I could not find the spot where they were nesting. All these three species breed at Plum Lake, a few miles further south, and they are also num- erous at Whitewater Lake, at the foot of Turtle Mountain. Here the nests of common terns and ring-billed gulls are said to be so numerous that the small island in the lake is almost covered with their nests. The terns lay their eggs in hollows in the sand, but the ring-billed gulls make their nests of weeds, in which they lay their eggs. These vary considerably, but are at once distinguished from eggs of the American herring gull by their smaller size. In “ Nests and Eggs of North American Birds,” by Oliver Davie, the size of the ring-billed gull’s eggs is said to be from 2.75 to 2.80, by 1.60 to 1.75. This must be a mistake, as Professor Ridgeway, in his manual, gives the average size as 2.39 by 1.71, and the latter is the average size of a series of eggs now before me. On the lake a number of mallards, shovellers, pintails and other ducks were seen, and some of them had broods of young ones swimming around them. While wading through the rushes around the margin of the lake, I was startled by a pair of large birds flying up a few yards in front of me, and I soon saw they were little brown cranes. There I found their nest, and was greatly disappoint- ed to find it empty, but apparently all ready for the eggs. The nest was very large, about three feet in diameter, and stood about a foot above the shallow water; it was made of rushes and aquatic plants, with a slight cavity at the top, and was built in a clump of thick rushes. I was evidently a week or ten days too early for the eggs. I wandered around 152 Bird-Nesting the lake for a mile or so, and then looking at my watch I saw it was dinner time, so I returned to the horse and buggy and had lunch. On my way to where the horse was feeding, I came across a nest of four eges of the killdeer. : After resting awhile, I drove around the western shore of the lake, tied the horse to a fence, and then examined the rushes which fringed the lake. _Yellow-headed blackbirds and red-winged starlings swarmed amongst the rushes. Further on, I saw the rushes grew very thick, and the wild rice stood six feet high, so I went in this direction, and dis- turbed a number of ducks, but did not find their nests. I was startled by a loon flopping out of the rushes; it flew out towards the lake, and settled some distance from the shore. A few steps further, and I beheld its flat nest of rushes. with two large, handsome eggs resting in a cavity at the top. The nest was built near the water's edge, and consisted of a mass of sedges and grass. The eggs were slightly incubated, and are dark olive brown, spotted with black ; they measure 3.60x2.25, and 3.55x2.20. The loon, or great northern diver, is a handsome bird, and sometimes weighs as much as fourteen pounds. It is a com- mon bird in Manitoba, and breeds around most of the lakes and larger sloughs. It also breeds plentifully in Ontario, about the Muskoka Lakes and around Lake Simcoe. It breeds regularly all along the northern part of the United States, in Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and New York. In marshy districts, this bird makes a nest of sedges, grass and sods near the water’s edge amongst the rushes, but in rocky districts, like Muskoka in Ontario and the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York, it makes no nest, but simply lays its eggs in holes in the sand, or on the rocks near the water's edge. This bird is common in Iceland, from where I receive a num- ber of clutches every year. The number of eggs to a clutch is generally two, but occasionally as many as three eggs have been found inanest. They are rather late breeders, seldom hav- ing eggs before the middle of June. A set of two eggs before me were collected by J. W. Banks, at Ball’s Lake, New Bruns- afeste ae yer a= Seabee ate Cad ~~ Pia a LOON’S NEST. In North-West Canada. 153 wick, June 20th, 1889. The nest was composed of lily leaves, grass and rushes, and was built in shallow water. Another set of two eggs in my possession were collected as late as August 4th, 1889, at Lake St. Joseph, Muskoka, Ontario; in this case there was no nest, the eggs were simply laid in a hole in the sand near the water's edge. In an open drawer before me is a series of eighteen eggs of this species. The eggs of the great northern diver are very dark-looking and do not vary much, some are olive-brown, others olive-drab or chocolate, spotted and blotched with dark brown or black. In shape they are long and narrow, and average mm size 3.55 x 2.30. I have on more than one occasion seen loons in Toronto Bay, but they do not breed nearer than Lake Simcoe. The red-throated loon is also a common summer resident in Manitoba, and breeds around Shoal Lake, and Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba, and in the extensive swamps about the mouth of the Red River. Further east it breeds about Quebec, and on the islands at the mouth of the River St. Lawrence, and in New Brunswick. Mr. Frazer found this species breeding on the islands and along the coast of Labrador. The eggs were found on the edge of the smaller ponds. The birds make no nests, but lay their eggs in hollows in the ground close to the water's edge. The red-throated diver is plentiful in Iceland, and also breeds in the British Islands, on the Scottish mainland, and in the Shet- land and Orkney Islands, as well as the Hebrides. It is com- mon around the shores of the White Sea, Northern Russia, and I have clutches from that locality, that were taken at Archangel. I have a series of twenty eggs from Iceland, there fresh eggs are collected from the middle of June to the middle of July. They are similar in colour to those of the common loon, but, of course, are half the size; they vary from olive- brown to olive-drab, some are greyish-brown or deep reddish- brown, spotted with black. In size they vary from 2.60 to 3.00 long, by 1.65 to 1.90 broad. The third species of loon, which inhabits Great Britain as well as North America, is the black-throated diver. In North 154 Bird-Nesting America this species is more rare than the common and red- throated loon, and is not often observed in the United States. Its summer home is within the Arctic circle. The black- throated loon is known to breed in Sutherland, in Scotland, and also in the Shetland Islands, and in the Hebrides. This species also breeds in Norway and Sweden, and is common in Lapland, but does not breed in Iceland, where the common loon and red-throated diver are abundant. In “ Nests and Eggs of North American Birds,” by Oliver Davie, a set of two eggs of this bird is recorded as coming from Iceland, and now in the collection of J. Parker Norris. This is evidently a mistake, as the black-throated loon is not found there, besides, the measure- ments of the eggs are too large, as this species never lays an ege 3.40x2.11. Professor Ridgway gives the size as averag- ing about 3.09x1.96. The above set recorded from Iceland is doubtless a clutch of the common loon. I have received dozens of egos of the common and red-throated loons from Iceland for the past seven years, but never yet obtained an egg of the black- throated loon from that country. Before me is a series of fourteen eggs of the black-throated diver, all from Lapland, The following is the measurement of four of the sets : Set 1. Two eggs, collected at Tornea, Lapland, June 22nd, 1888 ; size, 3.23x1.92 and 3.28x1.95. Set 2. Two eggs, from Tornea, Lapland, June 20th, 1886; size, 3.25x2.00 and 3.20x- 1.97. Set 3. Two eggs, from Lapland, June 16th, 1890; size, 3.33X1.93 and 3.25x1.92. Set 4. Two eggs, from Lapland, June 18th, 1891; size, 3.25x2.00 and 3.18x1.97. It will be seen from the above data that in Lapland this bird lays its eggs about the middle of June. In colour the eggs of this species are like those of the common loon, but they are less in size. The home of the various species of loons is on the water, and they are awkward and helpless on land, on account of their legs being so far behind. They are splendid swimmers and divers, and can make rapid progress under water. I took the eggs back to the buggy, and then drove the horse further round the lake. Out in the deep water were a num- ber of ducks, grebes, coots and gulls, and amongst them I saw In North-West Canada. 155 a male buftle-headed duck, no doubt the female was sitting on her eggs in some hollow tree in the bluffs around the lake. A clutch of ten eggs in my possession were collected at this lake, May 25th, 1890. The nest was found in a hole of a decayed tree fifteen feet from the ground, and the hole was lined with feathers and down. The eggs are greyish-buff and average 2.00x1.45. I again tied the horse to a fence and went and examined a blaff, in hopes of finding some hollow tree containing a nest of the buffle-head, hooded merganser or summer duck, but with the exception of a few crows’ nests and grackles, I found noth- ing worthy of note. A pair of double-crested cormorants flew | across the lake. They nest on some of the larger lakes of Manitoba. Hundreds breed at Elk Island, in Lake Winnipeg: some make their nests on low trees, and others nest on the ground. The nests are made of sticks and rushes, and usually ‘contain three or four egos, bluish-green in colour, with the usual chalky surface; the size averages 2.50x1.55. Thirty miles south-east of Oak Lake is Whitewater Lake, at the foot of Turtle Mountain, a good place for the sportsman in the fall of the year, when this fine sheet of water is covered with thousands of ducks and geese. A number of skiffs are kept for hire at Boissevain station. Near Whitewater are the Tiger Hills, haunted by moose, black-tailed deer, and black and brown bears, it also being a good locality for Canada grouse. Camp outfit must be taken, but the sport is said to repay all trouble, as ample occupation can be found for both rod, rifle and shot-gun. This lake, as well as most of the larger lakes in Manitoba, is plentifully stocked with fine fish, includ- ing heavy maskinonge, pike, pickerel, etc., and they furnish a pleasant change of occupation during weather too warm for game to keep, or when it is desirable to give gun and rifle a rest. As the horse was getting rather restless, and it was four o'clock, I drove away from the lake, and afterwards found I had left a basket with some eggs in it on the shore of the lake, so I went back, but could not find it; fortunately the basket only contained common eggs. 156 Bird-Nesting In driving across the prairie I almost ran over a Bartram’s sandpiper, as she sat on her nest; it took me some time to pull the horse up, as he was so anxious to get home, and on turning back I could not find the nest. Bartram’s sandpipers sit very close and will almost suffer themselves to be stepped on before taking flight. On my way back to the hotel Istopped at a wood of scrub oaks, and saw a brown creeper climbing up a tree trunk, but was unable to find its nest. Both this species and the winter wren breed in the bluffs on the prairies. The brown creeper’s nest is usually found built between the loose bark of decayed trees, it is made of twigs, leaves and bark; the number of eggs is from tive to seven. A set of six eggs taken near Toronto, June 4th, 1889, are similar to those of the chickadee. They are white, speckled with reddish-brown, and the nest, a mass of twigs and leaves, was crammed between the loose bark of a fir tree. Dr. Coues, in “ Birds of the North-West,” says: “Iam unable to perceive any difference between American and European examples of this bird, and Iam not aware that any tangible character has been ascribed to our bird by those writers who have technically separated it.” The winter wren also breeds throughout Manitoba, One is recorded as having built its nest in the pocket of a man’s coat that was hung on the door of a ferryman’s house on the Souris river. This bird also breeds near Toronto, Ontario, where its nest is occasionally found in the upturned root of a fallen tree, this also being a favourable site for this bird’s nest in England, where I have found it on many occasions. I have come across its nest in various other situations, such as in the bank of a stream amongst tree roots, or attached to the moss- covered trunk of a tree: but wherever its nest is found, it greatly resembles the surroundings, and the birds wisely adapt the materials to correspond with the site selected, thus helping concealment. The nest is a beautiful compact woven structure, with a hole at the side for an entrance, like that of the water ouzel. It takes very little to make the bird forsake its nest, a In North-West Canada. 157 trifling enlargement of the orifice, or straining of the fabric in the effort to send the finger to the bottom of the nest, is quite sufficient to cause the nest to be deserted. The number of eggs laid is from six to eight. They are clear white, with a few fine specks of brown at the larger end. This little bird has a powerful song, and I have heard it at Lorne Park, on the shore of Lake Ontario, where the bird is a summer resident. This bird has a habit of winding in and out amongst the roots or branches of a fallen tree, singing lustily all the while, and when I hear its song I can faney I am again in Yorkshire, England, where the birds are common. Some American ornithologists consider the winter wren, brown creeper, golden-crowned kinglet, short-eared owl, marsh hawk, and many other species, distinct varieties of the Euro- pean forms; but in many cases the differences are so slight that five out of six ornithologists of ordinary acuteness and experi- ence are unable to satisfactorily distinguish any difference between American and European examples. It is a question if there is anything to be gained by naming races distinguish- able only by experts, aided by a large amount of specimens. Of late years there has been a tendency to become too exact, and forms are being named which, five years ago, would have been considered too slightly differentiated to require recogni- tion. Take the shore lark for instance; how this bird is being sub-divided. At the present time there are supposed to be close upon a dozen varieties in North America. The shore lark of Europe differs as much in plumage as the American bird. Those which breed in southern Europe differ somewhat from others which nest in northern Europe and Lapland, climatic influences making a difference in their plumage, but Kuropean ornithologists apparently do not consider this suf- ficient grounds for naming one the northern shore lark, and the other the southern; they evidently consider there is noth- ing to be gained by so much sub-dividing and splitting, and itis a question whether American ornithologists are not becom- ing too exact, and if we go on sub-dividing and sub-dividing it will soon become a troublesome question as to what is a species. 158 Bird-Nesting In the blufts [ found a number of common birds breeding, such as golden-winged woodpeckers, cat birds and robins. I also noted several American goldfinches, Baltimore orioles, blue-jays, kingbirds and red-headed woodpeckers. The horse had become very restless, so I got into the buggy and was soon moving at a rapid pace back to the station where I found I was just in time for supper. Supper over, the owner of the horse and buggy then took me for a drive along the banks of the Assiniboine river. North of Oak Lake we drop down into the beautiful picturesque valley of the Assiniboine. In some parts the valley is well timbered and has a park-like appearance. We crossed the river by the bridge, and then drove east along the banks of the Assiniboine, beautiful views presenting themselves at every turn and bend of the river. The sun was setting in the west, and the birds were singing their evening matins. A number of night hawks were flying — over the river, making their presence known by their screech- ing. A gentle breeze sprang up, bringing with it delicious perfumes from the numerous wild rose bushes. As it was get- ting dusk we turned back, and stopped on the bridge at twi- light and listened to several whip-poor-wills calling, and to the screeching and hooting of the owls in the woods. On reaching the hotel I was introduced to a local ornitholo- gist, who showed me his collection, and I bought a number of clutches from him, including sets of sparrow-hawk, hawk owl, Swainson’s buzzard, rusty grackle, clay-coloured sparrows, great grey shrikes, and others. I also bought a clutch of two egos of the whooping crane from a boy who had collected them on the prairie north of Oak Lake. It is a handsome set, and the large eggs are yellowish-drab, blotched with brown and greyish-purple, and measure 3.90x2.53, and 3.95x2.55. The nest was a flat structure of rushes and grass, two feet in diameter, and was found near a slough. Soon after ten o'clock, I retired for the night. In North-West Canada. 159 GEAR EHR so. Ge - “Cr uNE 18th.—This morning I was up early and out Nl before breakfast,and gceaial through the bush south @ ji A of Oak Lake. Here I found a number of common S258 woodland birds nesting. I came across a nest of the g: ex © ral cedar bird and five eggs, built in a poplar; the nest &9 was made of twigs, leaves and grass, lined with fine roots. The eggs are slate-coloured, spotted with dark purple- brown. The cedar bird is a late breeder, seldom having eggs before the end of June, fresh eggs often being found as late as the second week in August. This bird has been obtained in England. I saw several great northern shrikes, Canada jays, meadow larks, bobolinks, clay-coloured sparrows, warblers, and other small birds. I did not find a nest of Brewer’s blackbirds in the North-West, neither do I recollect seeing the bird, but rusty grackles and bronzed grackles, red-winged and yellow- headed blackbirds are plentiful everywhere in the bluffs and around the sloughs. They all go under the name of blackbirds, and share in common the curses of the settlers, on account of the damage they do in the harvest field. The Canada jay or whiskey jack is not a rare bird in Mani- toba, but its nest and eggs are seldom obtained. They breed in the bluffs and in tamarac and willow swamps, and the birds often visit the farms, and are well known to the settlers. The nest is usually built im spruce or tamarac trees, and made of twigs, bark and grasses, and the four or five eggs are greyish- yellow, finely Gua with spots of brown or slate colour, and they average in size 1.20x0.70. Another well-known bird whose eggs are seldom obtained is the Canada grouse or spruce partridge. They breed on Turtle Mountain and in the Riding and Duck Mountains, and in east- ern Manitoba, along the Winnipeg river. Further east they breed along the northern shore of Lake Superior, and on the 160 Bird-Nesting banks of the Ottawa river, and are plentiful about Quebec, Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Maine. The nest is made on the ground under the low, horizontal branches of fir trees, often in swampy situations. It consists of a hollow in the ground, lined with leaves and grass, and the number of eggs varies from nine to fifteen. A set of ten eggs before me are very handsome, they are rich cream, thickly spotted with reddish-brown, and measure 1.70x1.20. They were taken near Quebec, June 5th, 1890. The American hawk owl occasionally breeds about Oak Lake. AY A ys Paty \ a thts 1b i} i CANVAS-BACK DUCK x YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. ir NESTS oe bec! aay, In North-West Cunada. ° 165 T now had as many eggs as I could carry, so I took them to the shore and erected a stick and fixed a piece of paper on the top of it, so that I could easily find the place again. I then ex- plored the rushes further on, and soon found several nests of the coot, containing from six to nine eggs each. As I took the eggs from each nest, I marked each clutch with a pencil, so that I could easily sort out the clutches after blowing them. This is what all collectors should do when they find several nests and eggs of the same species in one day. Supposing you find three nests of coots, containing six, eight, and nine eggs each, the first clutch should be marked 1-6, the second 2-8, and the third 3-9, and so on. My next find was a floating damp nest of the horned or Sclavonian grebe. The eggs were covered over with rushes, and it is surprising how the eggs can hatch in such a damp situation. The nest contained six fresh eggs, which are a trifle larger than those of the pied-billed grebe. Coot’s nests began to be numerous, and I suppose I could have collected two hundred eggs had I wished, but three clutches satisfied me, so I left the rest. Yellow-headed and red-winged blackbirds’ nests were also plentiful, and every clump of rushes contained three or four nests. As I was again loaded with eggs, I waded to the shore once more, and placed the eggs with the others previously collected. The sun was very powerful, and towards evening the mos- quitoes were a terror; my neck was so sore from their stings that I could scarcely sleep during the night. I filled up my soft hat and handkerchief with eggs and carried them further along the banks of the lake towards another part of wild rice, On my way I flushed a male Wilson’s phalarope from in front of my feet, and soon found its nest and four handsome eggs well concealed in the centre of a tussock of marsh grass. The eggs are smaller than those of the spotted sandpiper and are clay-coloured, heavily spotted and blotched with blackish- brown. After the female has laid the egos, she leaves them to the male bird, who sits on them close until the eggs are hatched. The female in the meantime enjoys herself with 166 Bird-Nesting other females, who spend their time in feeding and swimming about and flying around chasing each other for sport. Wil- son’s phalaropes are like turtle doves among birds, they are gentle, handsome in plumage, elegant in form, and graceful in their movements. In approaching the thick part of wild rice and rushes, two great birds flew up with a big flap and a splash, which gave me such a sudden start that it caused me to stumble into deep water, and I sank up to the waist. I got out as soon as I could, but I was pretty damp. However, I was going to examine that clump of rushes if I got up to the neck in the attempt. So, after wading cautiously, I reached the patch of rushes, when to my delight I beheld a great nest, the size of a cart-wheel and nearly two feet high. Four steps farther, and my eyes rested on—what do you think? Great Scott! two handsome egos of the little brown crane. Well, you can guess my heart throbbed with joy, and I felt like yelling out at the top of my voice. The eggs were warm, but on trying them with a drillI found they were onlyslightly incubated. The nest was a mass of rushes and aquatic plants, centre hollowed and lined with grass and feathers, and the eggs were yel- lowish-drab, mottled and blotched with reddish-brown, and are larger than the eggs of the Canada goose. Putting one in each pocket, I waded to the shore, and as I was very wet I directed my steps to the cabin which was a mile and a half away, and changed my clothes. I took as many eggs as I could carry with me, intending to return later for the rest. The little brown crane breeds throughout Manitoba and around most of the lakes and larger sloughs. It breeds at Crescent Lake, Oak Lake, Shoal Lake, and amongst the nu- merous small lakes at the south end of Lake Manitoba. It is also common at Big Grass Marsh which is twenty miles in length and five miles wide, and is situated west of the southern end of Lake Manitoba. This great swamp swarms with bird lite, but it is not safe to enter it without a compass, as the rushes and wild rice grow so high it is an easy matter to get lost in this extensive swamp, and it can only be explored by ® 4 C < a - 4 ne % = oO A ol tw > fe mae perish a ae In North-West Canada. 167 means of a canoe. The little brown crane inhabits the country stretching from Lake Winnipeg north-west to Alaska. It is common at the mouth of the Yukon. Eggs were obtained by Mr. Dall, in the Yukon River, on June 17th. Here they are laid in depressions of the sandy beach, without any attempt at a nest. This species is not known to breed in the United States, but a few pairs may nest in Northern Dakota, near the Canadian boundary. Before me are five clutches of two egos each, of the little brown crane, all from Manitoba. They resemble eggs of the whooping and sandhill cranes in colour, but are so much smaller that it is impossible to confound them with the other two larger species. The following is a deserip- tion of these five clutches : Set I. Two egos taken at Crescent Lake, Assiniboia, May 16th, 1890; ground colour, hight brownish drab, mottled and blotched with pale reddish brown and greyish purple. The blotches are very heavy at the larger ends; size 3.56x2.28 and 3.59x2.30. The nest was composed of reeds, built on a sandy knoll in the marsh. Set Il. Two eggs, taken at Crescent Lake, Assiniboia, May 20th, 1890; ground colour, ashy yellow, blotched with pale chocolate brown and purple grey; size 3.60x2.30 and 3.64x 2.32. Nest made of rushes on a sandy knoll in the marsh. Set II. Two eggs, taken at Big Grass Marsh, Manitoba, May 29th, 1890; ground colour, light ashy yellow, with a buffy tinge, blotehed with sienna brown, and darker choco- late spots at the larger ends; size 3.62x2.25 and 3.53x2.27. Nest, a large structure of rushes, built amongst growing rushes in the marsh. Set IV. Two eggs, Big’ Grass Marsh, Manitoba, June 2nd, 1891; ground colour, olive drab, spotted and blotched with yellowish brown and purple brown, with under shell markings of purplish grey, the markings having a tendency to form a zone around the larger ends of the eggs; size 3.47x2.09 and 3.38x2.18. Nest, a large structure of rushes and aquatic plants, built amongst the growing rushes. Set V. Two eggs, Long Lake, Manitoba, June 18th, 1891; ground colour, yellowish drab, mottled and blotched with red- 168 Bird-Nesting dish brown and purple grey; size 3.65x2.25 and 3.62x2.27. Nest, a mass of rushes and aquatic plants, with a hollow at the top lined with grass and feathers. After changing my wet clothes, I returned to the place where I had left the other eggs, opposite the little brown crane’s nest. Looking at my watch, I found it was eight o'clock, and the sun was setting in the west. The mosquitoes swarmed in myriads, and their stings were very painful. The beak of the mosquito is simply a tool box, wherein the mosquito keeps six miniature surgical instruments in perfect working order. Two of these instruments are exact counter- parts of the surgeon’s lance; the third is a spear, with a double-barbed head; the fourth is a needle of exquisite fine- ness, a saw and a pump going to make up the complement. The spear is the largest of the six tools, and is used for mak- ing the initial puncture ; next, the lances or knives are brought into play to cause the blood to flow more freely. In ease this last operation fails to have the desired effect, the saw and the needle are carefully and feelingly inserted in a lateral direction in the victim's flesh. The pump, the most delicate of all six of the instruments, is used in transferring the blood to the insect’s stomach. The mosquitoes of the North-West are larger, and their stings are more painful, than the eastern pests. My next find was a clutch of eight eggs of the Virginia rail. The nest was made of sedges, like that of the Carolina crake, and built in a tuft of reeds. The eggs are creamy buff, finely spotted with reddish brown and obscure lilac, and aver- age in size 1.25x95. They can be distinguished from the eggs of the Carolina crake by their paler ground colour and finer markings. I saw a number of nests among the rushes, but did not wish to get my feet wet, so left them until the morrow. The male ducks of many species were swimming out in the open water, while the females were, no doubt, sitting upon their nests among the rushes. I noticed canvas-backs, red- heads, teals, mallards, shovelers, pintails, buffle-heads, Ameri- can widgeons, ring-neck ducks, and others. Black terns were In North-West Canada. 169 skimming over the lake like swallows, and the blackbirds, marsh wrens and bull frogs began to make a great noise as the sun was fast disappearing behind the western horizon. Several bitterns had begun to boom, and the croak of cranes, and the cries of coots, rails and ducks, all mingled together, made a noise that might be heard three or four miles away. I put the eggs into my handkerchief and turned in the direction of the cabin. I was surprised to find it was half past nine, and still light. The days are very long on the prairies. It was dusk at ten o’clock, and so I got the pro- prietor of the cabin to show me to my room. We climbed. up a rickety ladder to the loft, and here I found my bed. I would as soon have slept on a bundle of straw in his barn, The little room was very close, and the small window was a fixture and could not be opened. My room was divided from the others by boarding five feet high, and on looking over the top into the next room, I beheld an Indian laid stretched on a rude bed. To say I was dissatisfied with my sleeping quar- * ters, was putting it mildly. I placed a chair and box against the door, which had no lock, and putting my revolver under my pillow, I stretched myself on the grey blanket, covering myself with another one. As I lay outstretched on my hard couch, I thought of my comfortable bed at home ; however, there is something fascinating in having to rough it, and those who cannot stand these inconveniences had better keep away from the North-West. I tried to go to sleep, but, what with the noise of the kildeers, blackbirds and bull frogs in front of the window, the Indian snoring in the next room, and the irritation of the mosquito bites on my face and neck, it took me some time to get to sleep. During the mght I dreamt that I came across a huge crane’s nest, that some one had filled with all kinds of plovers’, cranes’, marsh hawks’, ducks’ and other eggs. 170 Bird-Nesting CHAPTERS XI. i | Pens . . ene yw” UNE 19th—This morning I was up and out early, BZSENG : VG and found a number of nests of common marsh birds. After breakfast I started out for the blufts north of Reaburn towards Lake Manitoba. In ~ Nae 5 - . a6 Ce crossing a three mile stretch of prairie, I came across G bs" several nests of the kildeer, and Bartram sandpiper. On reaching the first bluff, I found a crow’s nest containing four eggs advanced in incubation. This is rather a late date for crows’ eggs. The bluffs offer suitable nesting-places for the smaller birds, and I soon found a number of nests of king birds, white-rumped shrike and other species. I flushed a meadow lark from its nest containing six eggs. The species found here is the western meadow lark, and in a large series of eggs it is at once seen that the eggs of the western meadow lark are smaller and not so heavily spotted as those of the eastern meadow lark. While walking through one of the blufts I flushed a whip-poor-will from under a shrub, and there found its two beautiful eges. They are creamy white, illip- tical, quite equal at both ends, and spotted with yellowish brown and numerous shell markings of lilac. The eggs of the whip-poor-will are rather handsome. I have before me a beautiful set I collected near Toronto, May 24th, 1889. The ground colour is creamy white, over which are large splashes of lilac grey, and on the top of these are spots and blotches of sienna brown. The eggs were found by flushing the bird from in front of my feet. There was no nest, the eggs being simply laid on dead leaves. The whip- poor-will is common in Manitoba, and is more frequently heard than seen. The western nighthawk is also common and breeds in the bluffs, laying its two marbled and spotted eggs on the ground without an attempt at a nest. |WHITE RUMPED SHRIKE 2 NORTHERN SHRIKE 3 YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD 4 WHIP-POOR WILL 5 LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN 6 NIGHT HAWK 7 LITTLE BROWN CRANE 8 BOHEMIAN WAKWING 9 CEDAR BIRD 10 PINE-GROSBEAK 1!) RED- EYED VIREO 12 MEADOW LARK 13 SPRAGUES PIPER In North-West Canada. AE In crossing from one bluff to another, I startled a chestnut- collared longspur off its nest and five eggs. These eggs are greyish white, clouded over with purple grey and spotted with purplish black. The nest was similar to that of MeCown’s longspur, made of dried grass and built under the shelter of a tuft of grass. I also found a nest of the western vesper sparrow, or bay-winged bunting ; it was similar to that of the longspur. The eggs are pinkish white, spotted with umber brown, and are larger than eggs of the chestnut-collared long- spur. This little bird sings a pleasant song every evening as the sun goes down, and is a great favourite of the settlors. It has a great habit of flitting along the trails in front of an advancing wagon or person, alighting every few yards. I observed several sparrow-hawks in the bluffs. They nest in old woodpeckers’ holes. Golden-winged woodpeckers were also common. I flushed a small bird from the root of a bush and found its nest and four eggs. They were unknown to me, but turned out to be eggs of Leconte’s sparrow. They are pinky white, finely speckled with pale brown, and at the largest end they have spots of dark umber brown. These eggs are about the same size as those of the chestnut-collared longspur, aver- aging 74x52. The nest was made of dried grass and built amongst the grass growing at the root of a bush in a swampy portion of the bluff. The eggs of this species are very rare. I flushed several sharp-tailed grouse, and at last found a nest and fourteen eggs on the point of hatching. It was built under a bush, and consisted of a hollow in the:ground lined with grass and feathers. The prairie in this section is very flat, and the bluffs of pine and aspen stand out like islands surrounded with expanses of damp prairie. The bluffs swarm with bird life, and this is about the finest country one could imagine. Here the ornithologist can wan- der along all day and never feel lonely. There is always plenty to interest him. In the bluffs are found all kinds of woodland birds, such as black-billed cuckoos, shrikes, king- birds, robins, grackles, vireos, jays, warblers, woodpeckers, 172 Bird-Nesting hawks, owls, and buzzards, while from under the brushwood one is constantly flushing nighthawks, whip-poor-wills, prairie chickens, grouse and meadow larks. Out on the open prairie may be seen numerous kildeers, curlews and field plovers. Frequently a marsh harrier will come along, skimming a few feet above the grass, while over the sloughs and ponds gulls and black terns are always in sight. Walking along the mar- gin of a slough, one will soon disturb a number of ducks, grebes, bitterns, or rails. Glancing up in the vast expanse of ether, Swainson’s red-tailed and rough-legged buzzards may frequently be seen sailing in circles, and occasionally a turkey vulture, whose magnificent zrial evolutions cannot fail to attract attention. Then again, it is a common sight to see an eagle, peregrine falcon, goshawk, or hawk owl perched on the top of some tree which over-tops all the others growing in the bluff, From this elevated situation their keen eyes watch the movements of the various birds below. Now and again they descend with a terrific swoop on some luckless prairie chicken or plover, and carry it off. At other times, falcons, hawks and buzzards sit motionless for hours on the tops of some leafless, decayed tree, and as you approach cautiously, the sticks crack under your feet and the noise causes the wary birds to sail away. Occasionally one surprises a few graceful, black-tailed deer, who bound out of the far side of the bluff as you enter at the opposite end. At other times a prairie wolf or a fox will slink off as you push your way through the bushes and enter the bluff, and sometimes a black or cinamon bear is met with when least expected, but as a rule the latter at once make off at a rapid pace, with a kind of a fast shuffling walk. Other small animals, such as skunks, gluttons or wolverines, badgers, hares, squirrels, gophers and snakes all help to make matters interesting to the naturalist, and these animals are all plentiful on the prairies or in the bluffs. Then the prairie itself is highly interesting, this great sea of green that rolls its grassy billows from here to the Rocky Mountains. Nowhere in the world is there such a breadth of In North-West Canada. 73 fertile land untenanted. At some seasons of the year it does not look particularly inviting, but, no matter what the month, the first sight of the prairie makes an impression as profound as the first sight of the ocean. Each season has its distinctive livery. When the warm sun of early April has licked up the snow, the dead grasses of the old year look bleached and flat- tened out by the storms of winter and the rain, If fires have swept over the prairie in the autumn, a uniform rusty brown is seen in the spring, as far as the eye can reach. At this sea- son, where the soil is high and light, or where sandy ridges occur, the anemone patens, the first flower of the prairie, shows to the sun its pale blue, delicate white, or rich purple tints. The joy with which this harbinger of spring is welcomed by those who have seen no signs of life in garden or field for six long months can hardly be exaggerated. It blooms amid the snows. It flowers before its own leaves appear to live. Soon a tender green begins to flush the boundless prairie. As spring advanees, the grasses and plants gather strength. The prairie becomes a sea of green, flecked with parti-coloured grasses, and an infinite variety of flowering plants. The atmosphere, balmy and flower-scented, is also so charged with electricity that the blood courses through the veins under the perpetual influence of a stimulant that brings no lassitude in its train. Sum- mer comes crowded—or rather covered with roses. The travel- ler across the prairies walks on roses and sleeps on roses. By the end of June the air is laden with their perfume. These are followed by an innumerable variety of asters, solidagos, and the golden coriopsis. But the ripe glories of the year are re- served for the season when summer merges into autumn. The tints of the woods in the older provinces are left behind by the gorgeousness and wealth of the prairies’ colours. The reddish hue of the poas and other wild grasses, the salmon-colour of the sedges, the yellow of the bunch buffalo and blue-joint grass, the deep green of the vetches, the saffron-coloured reeds, the red, white, blue and yellow of the rich autumn flowers blend their beauties in a marvellous picture. As autumn advances the grasses take a lighter hue. They are dying. One by one 174 Bird-Nesting the flowers disappear. Instead of the variety of colours so splendidly lavished a few weeks ago there is only an unbroken tield of yellow, fast merging into white. It is now well on in October. The days are cool, the nights cold. Winter is at hand. Keen frosts kill all the remaining traces of vegetation, but winter is not yet. The sun seems to sweep higher. The atmosphere takes on a hazy and smoky look. The sun is red during the day and at his setting. The frosts cease and the Indian summer of the North-West sets in. Day in and day out, often for weeks, this delicious afterglow, during which existence is a luxury, continues. Then the sun sinks low again and frost puts an end to farming operations, and the winter fairly commences—a winter terrible to the inexperienced for its length and severity, but perhaps the most enjoyable season of the year to Canadians. Professor Hind, speaking about the prairie, describes its extraordinary aspects in the following graphic language :-—* It must be seen at sunrise, when the vast plain suddenly flashes with rose-coloured light, as the rays of the sun sparkle in the dew on the long rich grass, gently stirred by the unfailing morning breeze. It must be seen at noon-day, when refrac- tion swells into the forms of distant hill ranges, the ancient beaches and ridges of Lake Winnipeg which mark its former extension ; when each willow bush is magnified into a grove, each far distant clump of aspens, not seen before, into wide forests, and the outline of wooded river banks, far beyond un- assisted vision, rise Into view. It must be seen at sunset, when just as the ball of fire is dipping below the horizon, he throws a flood of red light indescribably magnificent upon the illimitable waving green, the columns blending and separ- ating with the gentle roll of the long grass, seemingly magni- fied toward the horizon into the distant heaving swell of a parti-coloured sea. It must be seen too by moonlight, when the summits of the low green grass waves are dipped with silver, and the stars in the west suddenly disappear as they touch the earth. Finally, it must be seen at night, when the distant prairies are in a blaze, thirty, fifty, or seventy miles In North-West Canada. 175 away; when the fire reaches clumps of aspen, and the forked tops of the flames, magnified by refraction, flash and quiver in the horizon, and the reflected light from rolling clouds of smoke above tells of the havoc which is raging below.” The foregoing pictures belong to the glowing summer, but the prairie, like the shield, has two sides. It should also be seen in a blizzard, if you can see and live, when the snow, driven before the wind, flies level through the air, cutting like a knife, and carrying with it an intense cold that neither man nor beast can face; when, as the storm gathers strength, sky and prairie are blended in an undistinguishable mass of blinding white, and nothing is heard but the mad hurrying and howling of the wind around and overhead, and the hissing at your feet with which it drives through the long grasses that the snow has not covered completely. It is on a day in the early months of the year, when the thermometer is low, the sky stormy and unsettled, and the wind fierce and steady, that the real blizzard comes; usually from the west, as the prairie grasses show, which always lie flattened out toward the east by the westerly winds. During the height of the storm, settlers hardly dare venture to their out-houses to feed or water the cattle. The poor belated farmer, caught perhaps with his team at some distance from a house, makes for the nearest bluff or woods. The trees bend double before the gale. All around he hears the snap and crash of breaking branches and falling trees, but these are not thought of in comparison with the greater danger that he has. escaped. A huge fire can be built, and there is little risk of the firewood giving out. Should there be no friendly shelter of house or bluff near, he may come out from the blizzard alive, but the fine dry snow is so blinding and penetrating and the frost so merciless, that the odds are very greatly in favor , of the blizzard. Usually the blizzard only lasts a day or so, but five years ago one in Dakota raged for three days and — nights, Everything outside perished, cattle froze to death or starved in their stables. In many cases firewood gave out, and though the furniture, floors and beams of the house were 176 Bird-Nesting burned. The older and weaker ones of the family died from the intense cold. About four miles south of Lake Manitoba I came across a bluff where moose sign was plentiful. How I longed to see a wild specimen of this the greatest of Canadian deer, but in this I was disappointed. This large animal frequents the shores of Lake Manitoba, and a couple of Toronto gentlemen caught a very young moose here last season and released it again after it had been admired. Another party who spent a week shooting in the neighborhood, last fall, shot eight deer, two bears, a lynx, and a great bag of grouse, and one gentle- man of the party, who had never seen a live moose before in his life, killed two of these animals in one day. The moose offers splendid sport to the still-hunter, and the Indians and half-breeds are experts at still-hunting. When they perceive a moose bathing on the side of a lake they crawl along the ground until within range and then seldom fail to drop him on the spot; great care, however, has to be taken, for the cracking of a twig is sufficient to alarm the animal. STILL HUNTING. In North-West Canada. : 177 The moose is often killed by “calling” him to the hunter in the rutting season by means of a birch-bark horn. In this way the animal can be called within a few yards of the con- cealed hunter. Another way of killing him is by the aid of a bull’s-eye lantern during night. The hunter paddles his canoe along the margin of the lake or river, shining his lantern to- wards the shore. In this way any moose or deer along the lake shore are attracted by curiosity to approach the light, and as their forms loom up in front of the hunter’s canoe along the beach they are easily shot down at close quarters. In winter the moose is hunted on snow shoes, but this method is unsportsmanlike. When the snow is deep the poor moose flounders and sinks up the middle in the snow, while the hunters run along the surface in their snow shoes. The moose is soon tired out and the hunters easily overtake him, killing the helpless creature at close quarters. According to Sir John Richardson, this animal has the sense of hearing in very great perfection, and is the most shy and wary of all the deer species, and on this account the art of moose hunting is regarded as the greatest of an Indian's acquirements, particularly by the Crees, who consider them- selves able to instruct the hunters of every other tribe. The flesh of the moose is very excellent. By nature the moose is timorous, and when excited its weapons are its horns and hoofs, and so forcibly does it strike with the latter .as to de- stroy a wolf or other large animal at a single blow. At such times the hair on its neck is said to bristle up like the mane of a lion, which gives it a wild and frightful appearance. The moose is found in Northern Europe, where it is known as the elk. The distribution of this animal, both in Europe and America, is remarkably alike, reaching to the Arctic coast in both continents and extending southwards to the same iso- therm. The moose is easily domesticated. Formerly these animals were used in Sweden to draw sledges; but, owing to their speed in accelerating the flight of criminals, their use was prohibited under heavy penalties. The movements of the moose are very heavy. from the great L 178 Bird-Nesting height of its shoulders. It does not gallop like other animals of the deer kind, but advances at a shuffling kind of amble, while its hoofs striking against one another make a strange crackling sound which can be heard at a considerable distance. Its speed, however, is great. During the winter it lives chiefly in wooded hills; in summer it frequents the swampy sides of rivers and lakes, often going deep in the water to escape flies and mosquitoes. . The eariboo is also found around lakes Winnipeg and Mani- toba, they are fond of the water and are great swimmers. There are two varieties in North America, one called “the barren ground cariboo ” and the other “the woodland cariboo. The former variety abounds in the Peace River country and swarms about Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake. The Copper Indians and the Dog-ribs and Hare Indians would be unable to inhabit their barren grounds were it not for the immense herds of this deer that exist there. The woodland cariboo is larger and scarcer, and inhabits the wooded country stretching between Hudson's Bay and Lake Superior. The cariboo is known in Europe as the rein-deer, and is found in Lapland, where it is a useful animal to the Lap- lander. With two of these yoked in a sledge, the Laps have been known to travel more than a hundred miles a day. In one of the bluffs I approached quite close to a goshawk which was perched on a decayed tree; it was evidently nap- ping, and the sticks cracking under my feet startled the bird. The American goshawk breeds in Manitoba and Assiniboia. Before me are three clutches that were collected in these pro- vinces. A set of two eggs were collected at Crescent Lake, Assiniboia, May 24th, 1890. They are bluish white, unspotted and slightly nest-stained. These eggs measure 2.40x1.68 and 2.33x1.65. The nest from which these egos were taken was made of sticks, with bark and leaves, and built in a fir tree. Another clutch of four eggs was taken at Lake Francis, Mani- toba, May, 16th, 1891. These eggs are also bluish white with- out spots, and incubation had commenced. These eggs measure 2.16x1.73, 2.12x1.68, 2.09x1.65 and 2.05x1.70. A third cluteh ta In North-West Canada. 179 before me are from the foot of the Riding mountains, near Minnedosa, taken May 19th, 1891. The nest was composed of sticks and leaves, and built in a fir tree forty feet up, and the three eggs are plain bluish-white unspotted. _ This is a noble hawk, and one of the handsomest of the family when in perfect plumage, and is a decidedly boreal bird. It breeds in northern New England, New Brunswick Nova Scotia, the province of Quebec and North-West to Alaska, where Mr. Dall records it as abundant, and resident in the Yukon region. The American goshawk has occurred in Great Britain, and is now considered specifically distinct from the goshawk of Europe. The American rough-legged hawk also breeds sparingly throughout the North-West, and I have a set of two eggs that were taken at Crescent Lake, Assiniboia, May 3rd, 1890. The nest was in a tree, and made of sticks and leaves. The eggs are much larger than Swainson’s hawk, which is the most common buzzard in the North-West. These two eggs of the rough-legged measure 2.40x1.87 and 2.34x1.80. The ground colour is dirty white, and one egg is heavily blotched at the smaller end with reddish brown, the other egg being blotched chiefly at the larger end. Though a large bird, the rough-legged buzzard’s quarry is humble. They prey upon field mice, gophers, frogs and lizards. These birds have none of the dash of the falcon. They appear heavy and indisposed to active exertion: flying slowly, and often remaining for a long time motionless on their perch. As it was one o'clock, and I began to feel hungry, I turned back and worked the blufts further to the west, where I found a number of nests of common birds, and started a prairie wolf who bounded out of the bluff as I entered. In crossing the prairie to Reeburn station, I came across a nest and five egos of the chestnut-collared longspur, and also a nest and four eegs of the killdeer. I reached the cabin about three o'clock, and had a lunch of milk and bread and _ butter, which was all the proprietor of the hotel could otter me, 180 Bird Nesting CHAPTER XIL f TER my sumptuous dinner I put on my rubber boots and explored the banks of the lake north of the JAS | railway. I came to a place where black terns were & ANS numerous, and flushed one from a mass of dead float- ‘si ing rushes: here I found its two eggs laid on the débris. Se The nest was a very slight affair, just a few blades of grass surrounding the eggs. I set to work and soon found a number of eggs, but as it was yet a little too early, most of the nests only contained two eggs. This species does not com- mence to lay until the middle of June, and fresh eggs are to be found up to middle of July. I soon collected a fine series, and it is surprising how difficult they are to find, so closely do they resemble the dead rushes and debris they are laid upon. Several times I almost trod upon the eggs, and I found I had to use great care to avoid stepping on them. The nests are very slight affairs in some cases; the eges were simply laid on the masses of floating debris of last year’s reeds, where the water was a foot deep: but occasionally nests were found con- sisting of a platform of grass or moss. The eggs vary consider- ably ; they are darker in colour than any of the other species of terns. The ground colour is brownish olive, some having a greenish shade, and they are heavily spotted and blotched with rich brown of every shade, from light brown to blackish brown. They are also spotted with neutral tint or stone grey. A series of over one hundred specimens before me show great varieties in ground colour and markings. The white-winged black tern is included amongst North- American birds on account of a specimen being obtained in Wisconsin in 1873. It was a female, and in the ovary were well-formed eggs, so it was evident it would have bred in the vicinity before long. The eggs of this bird are larger and lighter-coloured than those of the common black tern. I have a series of eggs of this 6 ii In North-West Canada. ISI species that were collected in south Russia, May 29th, 1858. Here the eggs are laid in similar situations as those selected by the common black tern, the eggs being laid on dead float- ing rushes in swamps. The white-winged black tern also breeds in Asia Minor, and in southern Europe. It occasion- ally occurs in Great Britain, but does not breed there. I came across a number of coot’s nests, but did not take any of the eggs, as they are not worth blowing, and I had collected three sets the day previously. The nests are usually large float- ing structures, and found in water two or three feet deep, and they are anchored to growing rushes. The next find of importance was a nest and six eggs of the red-necked grebe. The nest was a damp mass of decayed vegetation floating on the surface of the water amongst the rushes, and the eggs were covered with grass and sedges. The eggs are larger than those of the horned and eared grebes, but are similar in appearance, being stained with the decayed vegetation, and have also the usual chalky surface. They average in size 2.25x1.35. A number of these birds breed at Long Lake, and on most of the lakes of Manitoba, and along the Saskatchewan River. It is also found in Alaska. Several Franklin’s gulls began to fly about my _ head, screaming, as I approached a thick clump of rushes, and soon afterwards I came across a number of their nests. They were built in tussocks of rushes, and were made of sedges and aquatic plants. The number of eggs found in a nest was two or three, and most of them were advanced in incubation, while several contained young birds in down. The eggs are darker than most other gulls; the ground colour varies from light brown to olive-drab with shades of green and ashy: they are spot- ted and splashed with various shades of brown, chiefly at the larger end, and some have zig-zag lines of brown instead of spots. The eggs can be distinguished from those of Bona- parte’s gull by their larger size, averaging 2.12x1.40. Frank- lin’s gulls are beautiful birds, and several adult specimens I shot had their breasts and underparts deeply tinted with rose pink. The bird is common throughout Manitoba, and breeds a) 1 a z. Bird-Nesting in most of the lakes and sloughs. They have a habit of follow- ing the plough like crows, and devour the worms and grubs that are turned up by the plough. Yellow-headed blackbirds were very numerous, and I kept finding nests in every clump of rushes. The nests are attach- ed to the tall rushes, and wild rice, and are deep cup-shaped structures, firmly woven together. I came across a number of marsh wrens’ nests, and after ex- amining several, I found one containing six eggs. In taking the eggs out of the nest, | saw they were those of the short- billed marsh wren. They are glossy white, and are about the same size as those of the long-billed marsh wren. I flushed a marsh harrier, but could not find its nest, and a short time afterwards a duck flew out of a clump of rushes ; it was soon joined by the male bird, and they lighted in the water a short distance from the shore. They were a pair of ring-necked ducks, and I was pleased to find their nest, con- taining nine eggs, which proved to be partly incubated. The nest was made of sedges, and lined with grasses, feathers, and down; a basket-shaped structure, built in centre of a tussock of rushes. The eggs are olive-grey, with a butty tinge, and are very similar to eggs of the scaup duck in size and colour, averaging 2.25x1.58. The male bird has an orange-brown collar round its neck, Sut this is lacking in the female. This species has been obtained in Europe. The red-headed pochard is a common duck at Long Lake, snd I saw a number during my stay here. They make a nest like that of a coot, a basket-shaped structure of sedges, with a large cavity in the centre, lined with feathers and down. From seven to twelve eggs are laid; they are creamy buff, and are as large as the egg of the canvas-back duck. The eggs of the canvas-back can be distinguished from those of the red-head by their greenish-grey tint, the eggs of the red-head being buffy cream, with a polish on them. As my hat and handkerchief were now full of eggs, I waded to the shore, and placed them with the others collected pre- viously. I carefully noted the spot, so that I should be able to In North-West Canadu. 183 return to it again, and then struck out in another direction. In crossing over an island, I found a nest of the blue-winged teal, and the young birds had left the nest, as shown by the broken egg shells. Soon afterwards I flushed a Wilson’s pha- larope; the four eggs were on the point of hatching, so I did not take them. I startled a bittern from a clump of rushes, and made several attempts to wade to the spot, but the water was deep, and came over my long top boots. At last I manag- ed to reach the spot where the bittern had flown from, but was disappointed to find no signs of a nest. Later I flushed a little brown crane. Ducks and coots kept flying out of the rushes, and the centre of the lake was dotted all over with water birds. I found it a difficult task wading about, as in some places the water was deep, and how I longed for a boat, so that I could get about easily. I made up my mind that when next I visited Long Lake, I would bring a canoe along with me. I now came to a place where black terns swarmed, and I could see a number of eggs laid on the floating debris, but I could not reach them, as a deep channel of water ten feet wide intervened between this spot and where I stood up to the waist in water, so I had to satisfy myself with gazing on the eggs. My next find worthy of note was a nest of the horned grebe, known in Europe as the Sclavonian grebe. It contained five eggs, and the nest, as usual, was a damp structure of decayed vegetation: the eggs were covered with grass and aquatic plants. This species is the only grebe found in Iceland, where it is a common summer resident. It breeds at Rice Lake and St. Clair flats, and other marshy places in Ontario. The eared and pied-billed grebe also breed at Long Lake, and on most of the lakes and sloughs in Manitoba. All the grebes are expert divers and swimmers; they sink below the surface of the water almost without making a ripple. They use their wings under water, and when chased in a boat they at once sink, and when next they appear they are far off. At the flash of a gun they immediately disappear under 184 Bird-Nesting water, and are difficult to shoot. In some districts they are called hell-divers. Like the loons, they are awkward on land, from the posterior position. of their legs; the birds stand almost upright when walking. Leaving the eggs on the margin of the lake, and erecting a stick as a landmark so that I could find the spot on my return, I walked along the margin of the lake for nearly two miles, but only found eggs of the coot, black tern, Carolina crake, yellow-headed and red-winged black-birds.. As it was nearly seven oclock, and my dinner had long since digested, I turned back, gathering the eges previously collected on my way to the cabin. For supper the bill of fare was improved, consist- ing of milk, bread and butter and a couple of boiled eggs. How I longed for a nice piece of juicy beef-steak and a cup of good tea; but I had to be contented with that which was placed before me. The proprietor told me a boy had some eggs for me, includ- ing sparrow hawks and others, so after supper I went to the station and looked him up. The so-called sparrow hawks turned out to be a nice set of the pigeon hawks, which he had collected in one of the bluffs near Reeburn. I bought all the eggs he had for fifty cents. The pigeon-hawk breeds sparingly throughout Manitoba and Assiniboia, and is more plentiful in the Saskatchewan region. It also breeds in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. Before me are three clutches. A set of four eggs were collected by J. D. MeMurrich at Lake St. Joseph, Muskoka, Ontario, June 15th, 1891. The nest was in a tall pine, and made of sticks and moss. The eggs are very handsome; they remind one of the eggs of the European kestril in style of colouring, but they are smaller and more elongated. The ground colour is yellowish buff, and it is almost concealed by the heavy blotches of rich ruddy brown. A second clutch of four egos were collected near Minnedosa, Manitoba, June 2nd, 1891. Nest in a fir tree, made of sticks and leaves.