Page:Condor20(2).djvu/22

 8 THE CONDOl Vol. XX broken near the end, and after a moment's pause, the last notes were repeated, slowing up' at the close. What a delight to sit in the slough and hear these charming musical scales run all around you from invisible choristers! Joyous Bobolinks of the Sloughs, they surely are! After a rich afternoon with the Phalaropes and the lails, as 1 started homeward facing the lowering sun, the shining bent blades of the beautiful slough grass, green to the east, were blow- ing white to the west. Wondering if possibly the Phalaropes nested on the dry ground outside, instead of in the water-floored slough itself, I walked down the adjoining strip of dry ground; but though one of the long-winged birds came far afield to in- vestigate me, he soon returned to the other Whitewings and they all kept beat- ing back and forth over the brown-topped acres where their chief interest in- disputably lay. But where were the nests, I kept asking myself with insistent disappointment. Perhaps on some of the platforms of old hay that I had missed, safe in the heart of their water-floored cover. On. my last visit to the Phalarope Slough, about a week after my discovery of the birds, as two flew overhead near together I distinctly caught the reddish brown stripe along the front of the neck and the color on the chest character- izing the female. By this time the .birds were so used to me that their remon- strance at my presence was half-hearted and they soon dropped back to go about their own affairs. I had failed to find their nests, I acknowledged with keen regret, but the beautiful Whitewings had given me many choice hours. As I waded around listening to Sofas and nondescript Sparrows, a noise overhead made me look up. High up, away up in the blue dome, so high it seemed as if it must soon go out of sight, I discovered first one and then one more white Gull--a rarely lovely sight. Then as I turned toward home, a great cloud of white smoke from a burning straw stack rolled up and, blown by the wind, swept out across the prairie.. 6. FROM THE FARMHOUSE A low knoll overlooking the sloughs afforded dry ground for the farm buildings, and barn, vegetable garden, and potato patch attracted birds not found in the wet sloughs. In the barn, around whose doors the large band of farm horses and colts gathered picturesquely, a colony of Barn Swallows made themselves at home, and short rows twittered on the telephone wire outside, at a safe distance from hungry cats. On a fence near the barn an Eave Swallow was seen once or twice, perhaps from a neighbor's eaves. The piazza of the farmhouse looked out on a yard having delightful west- ern suggestions--scattered banners of gramma grass and a low form of sage- brush (Artimisia frigida), well associated with Clay-colored Sparrows and Western l[eadowlarks.. One of the larks sang habitually from the posts of the garden fence and he had a droll, rag-time phrase that seemed to run in his head. Su'-key, su'-key, su'-key, u'-key, suke', he sang over and over, to the irritation of the listener but with entire satisfaction to himself; he, the renown- ed musician who-but perhaps he was a young tenor whose full repertoire had not yet been developed ! Or, on the other hand, was it he whom I happened on at a crucial moment? On the grass in front of the house a handsome suitor stood facing his lady, displaying all his charms, his black-collared golden breast and his rich elaborate song, rendered with ardor and persuasiveness. Apparently, however, both charm of voice and person were lost on the lady, for