36 



9 



make great demonstrations of distress when startled even from 

 her eggs. 



Not infrequent in this locality is the nest of the ruddy duck, 

 Erismatura mbida, the birds being quite common about the 

 channels. The nests are generally very slight, often scarcely 

 more than a matting together of the tops of the marsh-grass 

 over the water, with a few additional grasses woven in ; some- 

 times, however, the nest is well made of fine grasses, especially 

 if incubation be advanced ; sometimes it is but a slight placing 

 of debris in a decayed cavity of a floating log, the arrangement 

 being so imperfect that the eggs may roll out. These eggs are 

 peculiar enough for a duck. Larger than those of the larger 

 ducks, nearly white and somewhat granulated, they might easily 

 pass for the eggs of some of the smaller wild geese ; especially 

 as the duck can scarcely ever be caught on the nest, but stealthily 

 dives from it like a grebe, before the hunter can detect it. These 

 ' eggs may be found as late as July. The males in the high colors 

 and strong markings of the breeding season are pretty objects 

 as they float leisurely about with their large tails straight up and 

 fully expanded. The flight of this bird is generally low over 

 the water, and its wings are nearly as broad as those of the coot. 



The nest of the blue-winged teal is occasionally found on the 

 Flats, and rarely that of the blue-bill or even that of the can- 

 vass-back or the shoveller. 



Very common, indeed, in the more open parts of the flooded 

 marshes are the queer nests of the dab-chick, Podilymbus podiceps. 

 They consist of a rounded or cylindrical pile, half floating, half 

 stationary, in about a foot or eighteen inches of water, about 

 fifteen or eighteen inches in diameter, built of soaked rushes 

 and debris in general, well slimed through with Algae, extending 

 dome-like about three or four inches above water, and having a 

 slight depression to receive the eggs — a nasty, filthy thing indeed 

 for a bird's nest. The eggs, some five to seven, are a little 

 smaller than those of the gallinule, and slightly rough or gran- 

 ulated, greenish white, often finely waved with green when 

 clean, but are soon wretchedly soiled from the nest, especially 



