IN QUEST OF A NIGHT-ROOST 203 



at the water's edge were a number of lively lit- 

 tle Northern phalaropes. 



It was especially interesting to watch the an- 

 tics of a family of blue-winged teal. They were 

 engaged in what might pass as a sort of game, 

 the fun consisting in each youngster taking a 

 dash, half flying, half running, for ten or twelve 

 feet, then diving like a shot. They plainly were 

 unable to navigate the air, and if the expression 

 learning to fly as applied to a fledgling, ever 

 means anything, it is in such a case. They were 

 evidently exercising their wing muscles so that 

 in a few days more, when the rapidly-developing 

 primaries would be a little longer, a real flight 

 would be possible. A young duck cannot make 

 a hundred yard flight at his first attempt, like 

 many other fledglings, because he has to rise 

 from the surface of the water, and must keep 

 trying till his pinions are sufficiently strong to 

 bear him. His ambition is always in excess of 

 his wing-development; hence his many early at- 

 tempts and failures while he is "learning." 



The significance of the diving part of the per- 

 formance was made manifest presently, when 

 a quick shadow shot over my head and, with an 

 oblique descent like a falling arrow, a duck hawk 



