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 May, 1911 MY AVIAN VISITORS: NOTES FROM SOUTH DAKOTA 99 the thrashers at Grass Creek were more numerous in 1906 than during the previous year. The first occasion upon which I had the pleasure of observing the Snowflake (_PJectrophenax nivalis) in that region was in the fall of 1903. I was standing on the summit of a lofty hill when on a cairn I saw the bird, for there was but one. I approached very near, and thus was enabled to study his coloration and general make-up, and to determine his kind. On my drawing too close, however, he would fly away with a "pur-r-r," but always came back to the self-same cairn. In winter the Snowflakes fly in flocks before the traveler's horses as the Horned Larks do, except that in taking flight they "rise as one man." They sel- dom come to the vicinity of dwellings, but in February, 1904, I saw one lone bird of this species in my garden plot, where I had thrown a quantity of kitchen refuse on the snow. When the hens appeared the bird uttered a scolding note and flew to a post. I have no record of the comings and goings of the Snowflake. In the middle of May--a time beloved of a myriad of birds--the Western Yel- lowthroat ((eolhlyps lrichas occidentalis) arrives in southwestern South Dakota. If your home is on a table-land, however, yoh may count upon seeing or hearing but little of this the most familiar of the warblers. But on Lake Creek, an indirect tributary of Big White River, the Yellowthroats were present by the hundreds. Here grow clumps and clumps of dwarf willows and bastard indigo, traveling over the miry meadows, or seeming to travel, for continuity suggests motion, and on their arrival at the brink of the creek approaching as near the water's edge as they can. secure a foothold, or roothold, rather, and then extending their wand-like branches out over the surface of the stream as far as these will reach. Such places are a paradise for the yellowthroat. From the time of his arrival in the springtime, through all the summer, you can hear his joyous "witcheW, witcheW, witcheW," from far and near. And he does not fear to leave the marshes, either. There are dozens of his kind among the weeds that flourish luxuriantly upon the flat meadows reclaimed by Mother Nature from ancient marsh-land. And in the miniature herbaceous forests abou your very doors you will find the bird and his mate in pursuit of their insect quarry. The Barn and the Cliff Swallows (lrJirundo erythrogaslra and retrochelidon lumfrons, respectively), in regions where the Bad Land formations and the lime- stone bluffs occur, find sites in plenty .that are suitable for nidification purposes. But in the marsh and sand-hill. country the former are obliged to build their nests in sheds, and the latter to construct theirs under the caves of buildings. At Lake Creek, despite all my efforts to prevent their doing so, the English Sparrows enlarged the openings to the cliff swallows' nests and evicted the rightful house- holders, after which they themselves took up their abode therein. Barn Swallows depart on September 26, or before, but as late as September 15, in 1906, I found in a nest within a shed, three young birds of this species that were just able to fly when I routed them therefrom. I saw no old birds about at the time, and what afterwards befell the young ones, I did not learn. In summer, when one is traveling over the prairies, especially during a rain, barn swallows frequently circle about close to, the horses in pursuit of the flies that accompany these animals, and on more than one occasion I have seen the 'birds dart after specks of flying mud that they mistook for insects on the wing. At a given date in spring or fall, a person may, conclude that there are no swallows about, and then, when traveling over the hill-country, suddenly come upon a num- ber of them circling round in some setuestered swale or valley. These birds seem to practise frequently this trick of going off by themselves into sunny nooks, and