Jan., 1918 A KETUKN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION 31 When the wheat was only a few inches high, sand-colored ground squirrels
and big jack rabbits were easily seen. Small heads stretched up from vertical
backs seemed to watch you wherever you went, low whistles calling your atten- tion to the animated flickering tails. Sometimes one dropped' down from on tiptoe to slide into its hole before you, or a close group with heads at different family levels stood erect around a hole returning your interested gaze. The big silent jack rabbits loomed large above the low ground cover as they loped along head down, seeming all hips, the white tail and ear backs making them so con- spicuous and easy to follow over the grain fields that they had the appearance of being surprised with the lid off. One that I must have rudely awakened from a noonday nap jumped out of its pretty form, a cozy little cavern pret- tily roofed by the headed straws of a sheaf of wheat, a choice home for the solitary wild creature of the earth. As the wheat grew and I walked down the narrow dead furrows between its rows, it was a pleasure to come upon the low prairie roses with wide spread petals smiling back at the sun. The wheat was late in coming up because phe- nominally heavy spring rains had flooded much of the country and the grain could not be pdt in at the proper time. 3. PA:STURE SLOUGHS ' ?There's water in every slough, this year," the farmer said, and as I went about I found myself eorroborating his statement in rubber boots. Just inside the pasture fence of our next neighbor on the north was a streak of open water heading a slough that on our side of the fence fanned out widely under cover Of high, wide-bladed slough grass. A pair of Shovellers, very likely the pair whose nest I had discovered near by, attracted me to it and I crept cautiously down the fence line stopping behind posts to see if the out- cry of the Redwing population had betrayed my presence. The Shovellers swam around, however, feeding and bathing quite oblivious of spectators, the light brown duck, after giving herself a thorough sousing, twisting her head back to fix her feathers and the trieolored drake putting his dark head under water here and there in search of food. When they had been enjoying them- selves, paddling around close together in a pretty confidential, Conjugal way for some time, a brown sister, apparently also a Shoveller, flew in. At this the duck quickly swam out toward the visitor, as if with friendly greeting, while the drake stretched up till he looked very long necked and gave several jerky bows of the head; after which he loyally swam off to his mate. The visitor, left alone, went swimming off by herself, perhaps waiting for her mate to join her. A few days later a pair of Shovellers, presumably the same, were on the slough with a pair of Blue-winged Teal that looked very small by comparison. When I started down the line of the barbed wire fence, our neighbor's horses, big gentle Percherons, crowded in to see me, and while I was making friends with them the Shovellers discovered me, the ducks disappearing and the drakes swimming to the farthest end of the slough. When the horses had strolled off I put my camp stool down beside the fence where the high grass helped conceal me and I could watch the water between the wires. While I was waiting for something to happen, I had a chance to enjoy the laugh of the Sora Rail that kept coming from the slough grass near by. Presently a second Shoveller drake, showing his blackish head, white breast, and dark maroon belly, flew over and lit on the water with bill tilted up airily, and at once started across the slough after Shoveller no. 1, clucking and
