BIRDS OF KANSAS. 99 



stretch of 

 Length. wing: Wing. Tail. Tarsus. Bill. 



Male 39.50 65.50 19.50 7.40 3.60 2.40 



Female... 36..50 63.50 18.50 7.00 3.40 1.90 



These birds are more common in the Mississippi valley than 

 elsewhere, though more evenly distributed throughout their 

 range than others of the family; breeding from Newfoundland 

 west to Alaska, and from about latitude 40° north to the Arctic 

 coast; they have been found breeding in remote places farther 

 south, but such finds are rare, and not within their natural breed- 

 ing grounds. 



Their flight is steady, strong and rapid, and when migrating 

 high in the air, following their leader in a triangular form, their 

 familiar "Honk, honk, awonk, honk," announces their arrival, 

 and at such times the shotguns are hastily put in order, and every 

 device possible resorted to in order to capture them for the table, 

 and for their feathers, as well as to keep them off the growing 

 wheat fields, where they do great injury, as they nip the blades 

 off with a jerk that largely pulls the plants up by the roots. 



The birds mate early in the season, and are true and ardent 

 lovers, the males chivalrous and brave. During incubation and 

 the rearing of the young, the males are as attentive as the fe- 

 males, sharing the duties, and proudly and courageously de- 

 fending their charges. 



Their nests are usually placed in a rank growth of grass on 

 marshy grounds, and near the water; are composed of grass, 

 weeds, or any material at hand, and lined with down; they are 

 quite broad and bulky, but when placed on dry grounds, a mere 

 depression lined with down. In places where greatly annoyed 

 and robbed by predatory animals, they have been found breed- 

 ing in trees, on the nests of the larger hawks, and of the Great 

 Blue Heron, and from such places are said to carry their young 

 to the ground in their bills, in the same manner as the Wood 

 Duck. Eggs usually six or seven; as high as nine have been 

 found, and in a domestic state have been known to lay as high 

 as eleven. A set of four eggs, collected in northern Dakota, 

 May 6th, 1880, from a nest on a small island in a lake, are, in 

 dimensions: 3.70x2.43, 3.74x2.44, 3.80x2.45, 3.80x2.50; and 

 in color dull white, with a faint greenish tint; in form, ovate. 



