Among the Water Fowl 



I have mentioned kept flying up, or were out in 

 the water within sight. Thus there were eleven 

 species of wild Ducks in that one locality, and all 

 of them in good numbers. This is a Dakota duck- 

 slough at its best. 



After a quiet Sunday in camp, our party being 

 increased to four by a local guide and a visiting 

 ornithologist, we made a trip to the " Enchanted 

 Isles," described in preceding pages. It was the 

 23d of May, beautiful, calm, and bright. We carted 

 a boat on a buckboard, and visited each of the 

 four islands, finding plenty of eggs of Cormorants 

 and Ring-bills and a few scattering nests of Pin- 

 tails, Gadwalls and Mallards — most of the Ducks 

 having not yet nested. But there were some dis- 

 coveries that I must describe in detail. We had 

 been but a short time on the Cormorant Island 



when the guide 

 \.'^^9|^|^gniB^B^^^t^^JL^ called out to me. 



It was but a few 

 steps to where 

 he stood, by a 

 clump of tall dry 

 weeds. In the 

 midst of them 

 was a great bed 

 of stems and 

 grass, lined with 

 an abundance of 

 white down, that seemed to fill the nest. But there 

 was something else white! Pulling aside the down 

 we found disclosed to view six enormous chalky- 

 white eggs, each as big as two or three Duck's 



178 



PULLING ASIDE THE DOWN, WE FOUND DISCLOSED 

 TO VIEW SIX ENORMOUS CHALKY-WHITE EGGS" 

 NEST OF THE (WILD) CANADA GOOSE 



