?an., 1918 A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION 25 that seemed headed for the top of our world! But my own field was rich enough for one season. During the summer ! visited five lakes, and while working on the Sweet,rarer chain, where ! spent most of the summer, in spite of my very local, restricted work and the fact that in my absorption in-water birds I paid little attention to land birds, I listed about eighty resident and summer resident species, including twelve or possibly thirteen species of Ducks, and five Grebes--all that occur in the United States except the Mexican one found only in southern Texas. The Sweetwater chain numbers some five or six lakes, varying with the height of water that floods or leaves dry their connecting links. The northwest lake of the chain, on which I was fortunate enough to find a real farmhouse home for the greater part of the summer was one of the largest, being about seven miles long by three wide. Across' the lake could be seen the grain eleva- tors of the small towns of Webster and Sweetwater, both on the line of the short Farmers' Railroad, running north from Devil's Lake. A hunting pass at the foot of the lake with a lodge leased at one time by Louis Hill, now president of the Great Northern Railroad, separated this lake from the next of the west- ern series, or more strictly connected it, for the three western lakes were con- nected by ditches cut through their passes. 1. ALONG OUR SHORE LINE Our lake, with a sandy beach for the main northern and eastern shore line and a marshy border below us through which large herds of pastured horses and cattle waded about at will, was less popular than others of the chain, and the birds seen were generally too far out or too wary to be watched to advant- age; but occasionally I was amply repaid for a visit to the shore. The afternoon of my arrival, June 19, on crossing the pasture on my way to the lake, I caught sight of sandy "Flicker-tails" or ground squirrels which with piping whistles and a flash of bright eyes disappeared down their holes befor? me as if announcing that I was now in the "Flicker-tail state"; and on following the cowpaths through a high growth of snowberry I was greeted not only 5y the songs., of Maryland Yellow-throats, but those of my old Dakota friends, the Clay-colored Sparrows. C?ossing the broken line of trees that accentuated the sandy ridge border- ing tl?e lake shore I looked out over the water, and to my astonishment the first Ducks I saw were a pair of the big northern sea Ducks, the White-winged Scoters, whose southern breeding limit is Stump Lake. While they also breed at Devil's Lake, they had not been recorded from the Sweetwater chain and had contemplated returning to Stump Lake to watch them. Here they were with all their ear marks, big bodied, fiat headed, one black, one dark brownish, characteristically lying prone on the water; and as if to make assurance doubly sure, one of them flipped up a wing so that its white patch showed. The next day I discovered a black Scorer in a rule bay by himself, and while I looked a second black one flew in and started to light not far away. As he went down the Master of the Bay made a rush at him, splashing the water white in his fury. The nesting season must be approaching, I said to myself, and noted with satisfaction that there were plenty of snowberry bushes near the shore for good nesting sites. Two days later, between storms, when a strong south wind was blowing across the lake, I went down to see what the Scoters were doing, for when inland Ducks take to the sheltered bays, these sea Ducks go out to ride the waves. There they were, quickly recognized by their flat
