LIFE HISTORTKS OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 23 



our ducks, a fit companion for the gaudy wood duck witii which it is 

 often associated in the watery woodhinds where it hreeds. 



Spring. — -As some in(Hviduais are present both in winter and in 

 summer over so much of its range, its migratory movements are not 

 easily traced. The birds which have wintered just below the frost 

 line begin to move northward before the ice has disappeared from 

 our large lakes and streams, frequenting the smaller and swifter open 

 streams; these birds move on as soon as conditions are favorable in 

 their northern breeding grounds. Others come later and spread out 

 over the country wherever they can find suitable breeding grounds. 



Courtship. — The courtship of this s])ecies must be a beautiful 

 l)erformance. I have never seen it and can not find any account of 

 it by American writers. Mr John G. Millais (191.3) gives the follow- 

 ing brief description of it: 



Tlie courtship, according to my friend Mr. i-'raucklyn, consists of a sudden rise of 

 the body with depressed crest. On coming to tlie water again the crest is fully 

 expanded. Tlie males also stretcli their necks forward with fully expanded crest. 



Nesting. — The birds are probal^ly mated when they arrive on their 

 breeding grounds and soon begin th(^ search for a suitable cavity for 

 a nest, but they are not particular as to the size and shape of the cavity, 

 the kind of a tree in which they find it, or the height from the 

 grotmd; almost any hole or a hollow tree trunk will do, provided it 

 is large enough to admit the bird and of the proper shape to hold 

 and protect the eggs: even the open lioUowed top of a stump or a 

 fallen hollovr log will do; and sometimes a hole in the ground is 

 occupied. 



Mr. Iferbert Massey has sent me some notes regarding two sets of 

 eggs in his collection. .\ set of 12 eggs, collected by Rev. P. B. Pea- 

 body, near Hallock, Minnesota, on Ma\^ 9, 1899, was taken from a 

 cavity in an elm tree about 100 feet from a wooded creek; the 

 cavity was in a knot hole 15 or 20 feet from the ground and was 

 2 feet dee]). The birds had used this tree for three years and had 

 previously nested in an exactly similar hollow in an old elm stub 

 half a. mile bel<ns . 'i he hole was so sniali tliat (he l)ird could hardl}^ 

 squeeze into it. There v»'as a scanty supj)ly of trash at the bottom of 

 the cavity, apparently brought in by squirrels, and there were a few 

 of the breast feathers of the merganser mixed with the down; the 

 eggs were nearly fresh. Mr. Edwin S. P>ryanl (collected the other 

 set of nine eggs, on May 28, 1899, near Vvliite Fish l^ake, Montana; 

 the nest of moss and down was in a hollow close to the toj) of a 

 leaning tamarack stub 50 feet from the ground; the tree stood on a 

 high ridge in a dense forest half a. mile back from a small lake; the 

 moss in the nest, apparently Vsnea, Mr. Bryant thought had been 

 l)rought in by flying squirrels. The female rcniuined on the nest 

 15749— 2;it 3 



