Page:Condor21(3).djvu/17

 .May, 1919 A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION 111 ' When the females or young were in sight one of the cocky drakes would often bridle, strike an attitude, and shake his castanets. And to my great amusement, an absurd downy duckling, in a brood of eight that swam by with their mother, swam with his spike tail up and made motions that suggested the chin exercises of his paternal parent! A blue-billed drake that I fondly imagined was that parent, stood watching the downy procession pass, looking as if he would burst with pride! Later I saw a number of these youngsters assuming the airs of their forbears. And late in August when I happened to cross the Belgrade Bridge just as the mother luddy passed below with her small brood, strange to say, she herself drew in her chin in the veritable manner of her little lord. While Coots and Dabchicks and ludclies seemed to make up the larger part of the population of the Coulee, there was a variety of families enjoying the safe harbor. Under the cat-tail wall of the nursery, one day, a family of pretty little ducklings was huddled close together with heads tucked down in their eathers, taking a noonday nap; while just inside the first row of cat-tails, their mother, whom I took for a Pintail, was sitting on a platform resting, but through her green screen keeping a watchful eye upon her sleeping brood. See- ing me, she rose to her feet and turned to face me for closer scrutiny, but dis- covering nothing alarming let her little ones sleep in peace. Another brood, preceding their mother, swam just inside a cat-tail screen whose stalks were vivified by the sun, their file crossing the shadowy open spaces like the ghosts of Macbeth's dream. In another place a motherly Shoveller swam along trail- ing seventeen young. They appeared to be in two broods of slightly different sizes but I could not be sure enough of that to safely draw inferences concern- ing foster parents. A Duck with white at the base of her bill was doubtless a female Scaip, but no young were in evidence. Families of well grown Canvas- backs were seen out in the open at various points, up and down the Coulee. In one place they were riding out on the riffled purple water while lines of young Coots were keeping close under the quiet marsh grass border. One day when absorbed in watching the ever shifting life of the Coulee '[ glanced up to find a big brown butterfly fluttering high over the water, the strong sunshine making it a joyous red against the blue sky: Another [smaller brown butterfly with a subterminal band of red was seen and exquisite [velvety red dragon flies with big eyes and bent legs were also greeted with enthusiasm; the pleasure of the sight in each case showing how little keen color there was in the landscapes of yellow grain fields and blue sky. Although the most popular nursery of the Coulee was in the na?rowest part bordering the pasture, where Marsh Wrens sang in the cat-tails and one heard occasional snatches of belated song from the Sora in the marsh and the Western Meadowlark in the pasture, there was much of interest in the wider parts of the Coulee beyond. From the top of the bench commanding the big bend one could look west down the narrow channel, and north up the broad north and south section of the Coulee. It was from this point of vantage that, on several different days, I watched one parent Coot on the bank opposite me diving and feeding its red-headed young inside ripple rings, and in the bend on the weed-covered surface of the sluggish water, saw the other parent feeding regularly from the surface. One of the first birds I saw from the crest of the bank was a little brown Hooded Merganser, sitting low on the weedy surface. It was a Duck I had