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Mar.,1916 CHARACTERISTIC BIRDS O1 ? THE DAKOTA PRAIRIES 57 contrasting well with its jet black head. On it would come with bill pointing down till suddenly it put on brakes by spreading its tail till from below the white under coverts gave the appearance of a white tail. Checking its motion so abruptly that it would almost go tail over head, it would plump into the water bill first, giving the droll effects of a sensient bill in pursuit of its food. Sometimes the handsome Hydrochelidon would flap slowly low over the sur- face, its black head and neck mirrored in the water; again it would hover above the lake like a Sparrow Hawk, and dive like a shot arrow. A white Tern, the Common Tern, that ! watched on Stump Lake hunting back and forth along three or four yards of shore, would hover, body almost motionless, in the face of the wind, looking down watching the incoming waves with black-crowned head bent and red bill pointing down till its quarry was espied, when it would drop straight as a plumb line so close before the oncoming waves that it would be spattered by the foam; then with its morsel secure in its bill it would rise again in the teeth of the wind sometimes almost as straight as it had dropped, sometimes with a graceful scoop upward. Back and forth and up and down its short beat it came and went while the Franklin Gulls sat in the sun, walked soberly along the beach, or flew out over the lake to ride the waves, rocking like miniature boats with black bows and sterns. The little Tern when tired of hunting joined the Gulls on a sand spit, as it lit, holding its wings for a moment high over its back, in the beautiful pose so often assumed by water birds. On the quiet side of the spit the Franklin Gulls disported themselves, some bathing--splashing and ducking--others feeding. A comical effect was produced by one that was looking for food with its head under water, for its raised wings balanced a headless body. When the head reappeared with a tidbit dangling from the bill, an observing neighbor made a dash for the hardly won morsel. While the Franklin Gulls, some with black heads, some with white foreheads and smoky crowns, amused themselves on the sand spit, a few of the large Ring-bills stalked around among them conspicuously. After a storm a close row of the Franklins sat on the lake side of the sand spit with the spray dashing over them. Forty or fifty of them sat in a row at one time facing the wind but with heads turned back resting on their shoulders so that in looking down the shore a long line of gleaming white gull breasts shone in the sun, a beautiful picture against its background of pale green water. Great numbers of the black-headed Gulls were massed on points and sand bars along Devil's Lake, early in July, while others were seen performing aerial maneuvers, circling in complex form, mulling around and around high in the air. But franklini is not to be remembered as a shore Gull. Going to my wiudow in a farm house one day ! started with surprise, for a flock of the black-headed birds were flying swiftly in, apparently headed straight for the wall of the house. Wind Gulls they are called locally, as they are said to circle around high in the sky "hollering" before a storm. But they are most widely known for their habit of following the plow--four-horse gang plows ! saw them with. Ring-billed Gulls, too, were often met with, flying low over the broken ground or sweeping over the grassy swells looking for small rodents. It always gave a jolt to one's preconceived notions of Gulls to meet them on land; but after coming to know the great prairies that roll on to a blue