Among the Water Fowl 



tantly responded, and flew out, as before. Every 

 egg had hatched, and the Httle creatures were active 

 and well dried off, ready for their exit to the great 

 lake and the wide world. I hoped to see them 

 taken from the nest, but the next morning it was 

 rainy again, and, when I got there later in the day, 

 they had departed. Where the tree is over the 

 water, the young have been seen to leap out them- 

 selves; but other observers report that the old bird 

 usually carries them out one by one in her bill. 



As hollow trees — or any others for that matter — 

 are not very plentiful in Dakota, and there are a 

 good many families of the American Golden-eye 

 and Hooded Merganser, like Abraham and Lot of 

 old the two kinds have wisely decided to separate. 

 The Golden-eyes seem to monopolize the hollow 

 trees by the lakes, the Mergansers those by rivers 

 The fact is that they prefer still and running water 

 respectively. In one trip that I made down the 

 Sheyenne River after the middle of June, I found 

 the pretty hooded fowl with the saw-like bills quite 

 abundant on the stream ; but a hollow, with green- 

 ish white egg-shells, from which the brood had 

 hatched and gone, indicated that we were too late 

 for eggs that season. The male Hooded Merganser 

 is a very striking bird, with his fine crest and con- 

 spicuous black and white plumage. I shall not for- 

 get how a pair of them on this river looked, as they 

 floated near together on its quiet surface. In sum- 

 mer the stream is but a few yards wide, so when I 

 crawled up through the bushes to the edge of the 

 bank just opposite the Ducks, I was very near, 

 indeed. They did not see me, and not until after 



200 



