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64 THI? CONDOR. Vol. XX The young when hatched are naked, but gradually become sparsely cOVered with light down. Feeding, which is participated in by both parents, takes place at short intervals during the greater part of the day, until the young are ready to leave the nest. So far as I have been able to observe, the parent birds appear to entice the ambitious nestlings into the tule and willow thickets away from the open flats where they may have been hatched. This is probably in order to af- .Cord them the shelter of the branches and, by removing them some little distance l'rom the ground, to protect them against small predatory mammals. In September the summer songs of the males have ceased and a great dimin- ,ution in their numbers is noticeable. By November, sinuosa has again largely retired to his tule jungle and with his added winter air of distrust is once more the shy flitting figure of the December marshlands. San Francisco, November 9, 1917. A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION By FLORENCE MERRIAM BAILEY 'With one photo by Robert B. Rockwell (Continued from page 37) 5. THE PHALAROPE SLOUGH NOTHER slough only a few rods from the farm house filled a level floored basin bounded by a low.bench line. When the first settlers came, the slough was an overflow from the lakes, one could row from it to both the north and middle'Sweetwaters, I was told; but now in dry years the entire slough could be mowed, as was attested by remains of fenced haystacks that made islands in the open water of the slough. The grass was the typical headed slough grass though not quite so high as that in the Big Slough, while its water was only about knee deep. The place had attracted me from the first because of the Red- wings that nested there and the Sora Rails whose ringing ecstatic songs came from it. In looking for the invisible Sora, one day, I flushed a small timid Sparrow, presumably the Nelson, which sang a variety of songs with the em- phasis on the first and second syllables--chit'-tah-ch?tter; chat', chat, chat-ah. cha; chit', chat', chitter, chitter chit; or chit, chat, chittah, c.hittah, chittah--and which gave a flash of bully before he disappeared in the grass. When he had gone down and I had roused the worried interest of several pairs of Blackbirds, I had a great surprise. The Redwings which were following me around in the slough were joined in air by two small waders, white from below and with sharp bony wing an- gles. Slender, long-winged, able-winged creatures of the air, with long legs projecting beyond their white fan tails, they were striking contrasts to the stocky Red-winged Blackbirds, so evidently creatures of the earth. ?Iuch smaller than the Upland Plover, with free open flight instead of the quick wing beats of Bartramia, and with a hoarse cry too large for their size, they puzzled me' greatly; for it was hard to catch markings, they flew so high above my