Jan., 1919 A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION 5 at last by deep wading I had discovered a colony of nests the parents had al- ready disappeared--the slough curtain had been dropped before my face. But from the vantage of the Coulee Bridge, I looked down on the birds pursuing their natural avocations largely unconscious of observation. The relief was so great that cSulees, bridges, and high banks became my desiderata for the rest of the season. Looking down on the Coulee to the west of the Bridge, only about a week after my discovery of the Coots' nests, I saw' a gray, white-billed parent Coot swim out 'from the cane and marsh grass of the opposite bank and start across the water followed one by one by a long file of droll little red-headed, black- bodied young ones like the nestling [ had put back among its brother eggs in 'its nest. With riveted gaze I joyfully counted eight of the swimmers, and aft- erwards when they recrossed the channel, one more had been added to the brood. Three days later I was fortunate enough to find what I took to be two par ents feeding their brood on the east side of the Coulee. That the two adults were parents of the one brood I inferred from seeing them together before discovered the young, and finally seeing them all swim about together. Wheu first seen the old Coots were crossing to the marsh vegetation on my side of the Coulee, possibly to see if they might better bring the young across to feed the.m; but after a few moments both returned, one swimming against the wind with head lowered. The north side of the Coulee was so well lit by the morning sun that I could see the small Red Tops sa;im through the wind-ma de arches of marsh grass, and when they were rejoined by their parents and divided into two squads, could watch them being slowly led up and down the edge of the Coulee; now outside, in sight--when I saw a parent dig around at the root of a cane--now in the cane labyrinth hidden from view, while the parents fed them. After working along different beats for a time, the parents led their broods up toward each other, but then as if realizing that it was easier to feed each little group by itself, turned and swam off in opposite directions. One parent who was followed by three young had a nervous air as if new to such re- sponsibilities for little mouths, and led the ducklings along with its quick pep', pep', picking rapidly from the surface of the water, one side and then the other, turning back to let its small followers take the food from its bill. A week later, on my third visit, I spent an hour and a half at the Bridge watching the Coots feed their young. As before, if my inference were correct, the two parents were taking care of separate squads. This morning instead of picking up tiny water plants from the surface, they got the food mainly under water, sometimes merely putting the head under and making dabs at the weeds, and sometimes diving for them. One parent--the mother, let us say--when followed a yard or two behind by two Red Tops dived and turned around der water coming up facing the other way to meet the laggards. I could see their red sealing wax bills open for the food held out to them. The mother may have been diving deeper than usual, for she would actually hop up out of the water so that her long legs showed, and then, pointing down her bill as a boy puts his hands together in diving from a height, would disappear below. When the bubbles rose over her, the young which had followed her would swim back to the protection of the canes and wait. When she reappeared they would swim out to her or she would swim back to them. Sometimes they would be so near that she merely reached back to them. She once gave one a piece of fila-
