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66 TH? CONDOR Vol. XX sometimes coming as low as ten or fifteen feet from my head. They generally flew near together, especially as they approached me, but toward the ends of their beat woixld sweep off wide apart in a broad turn. In flying swiftly by with closed tail the disappearing Phalarope suggested the buLlet-like end of a dirigible, but when one hesitated over my head, its slender outstretched feet and legs trembling from arrested motion, its spread tail suggested a white silk fan. Sometimes the beautiful birds would hover in air with feet hanging, cali- ing wek-wek-wek-wek.wek. Most of the time during the first day that I was watching them, two pairs of l?edwings and two White-wings were following me. When they were excit- edly flying over my head, one of the Phalaropes almost jostled wings with a Blackbird, and another time when the weaving wings became confnsed, a Barn Swallow actually chased a Phalarope for a good swing of the circle, a Swallow being used to circling the earth unhindered. Again, a Killdeer added its emo- tional cry in passing. When a young Redwing flew clumsily and noisily out of hiding, the old ones made a great to-do, one of them projecting a handsome- ly decorative figure against the blue overhead, with wings and tail Widely spread. As I passed a fence, an old male addressing his mate puffed out his scarlet epauletres till he seemed all red, the glowing color filling the eye. A third Phalarope appeared on the scene later, but did not join in the ?lemonstra- tion. There were two pairs of Phalaropes apparently living in the slough, and the two that most persistently followed me about were probably the larger, more briliantly colored females patrolling the slough while their mates--re- versing the general laws of nature as they do--were brooding the eggs and car- ing for the young. But in any case the presence of these most interesting birds made the slough a compelling place to return to. Enticing as it had been from the presence of the teasing, invisible Soras, now, with a bird of rare charm conspicuous in its sky, the little l?ail's songs called irresistibly from its green cover. There was a delightfnl Sora concert before sunseL one evening when I was there, the blithe songs tripping joyously down the chromatic scale, and at night, from the open windows of the farm house occasional outbursts came till nearly midnight from this joyous, irrepressible Bobolink of the Sloughs. The afternoon following my discovery of the Phalaropes, I again made my way down to their attractive home. Small cumulus clouds floated in the soft blues of the level horizon while big white clouds with wind-frayed edges stood out in the deeper blues above; but as with the Big Slough, the low horizon clouds seemed to come close, to make the prairie circle small and intimate, to make the Phalarope Slough a little' world of its own. And what a sunny, peaceful world it seemed, with the western sun yellowing its tall waving grass and giving a keen edge to streaks of yellow mustard beyond! Across the near sky line, telling of peace and plenty, a gang plow moved slowly back and forth. As the horses went and came, I corrected my count of five, for one horse without a white nose stripe--interesting point in Protective Coloration--had not been discovered at first! As I waded slowly about the slough, swashing through the water in my rub- ber boots, getting whiffs of fragrant mint and enjoying the pink flower spikes, near the line of the wire fence the Redwings followed me solicitously and the Whitewings flew overhead watchfully, but--clear mark of intelligence--after