80 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



upward to show his handsome markings, and, after a few seconds, dropped back 

 again to his former position. I.ate in tlie season there was always one of the males 

 v.ho was favored and who displayed more often than the other, flying close to the 

 female, so that in passing liis wings often struck hers, making a rattling noise. After 

 a short time the second male often left the pair and returned to the water. The birds 

 frequently mounted imtil they were 300 yards or more in the air, and darted quickly 

 from side to side, flying now rapidly and now slowly. When the flight wae over the 

 birds descended swiftly to the water again. I was never able to ascertain whether 

 there were some extra males about or not, as, though, there were usually two with 

 the female in this flight I found them at other times always in pairs. 



The female gadwall, like the mallards, also came out in the short grass of the shore 

 and walked about with head down, quacking loudly, an action that I took for part 

 of the mating display. 



When the birds were in the shelter of the rushes they went tlirough other mating 

 actions of interest. The male swam toward the female bowing by extending his neck 

 until the head was erect and then retracting it, bringing his bill down onto his breast. 

 He then approached pressing his breast against the sides of the female and shoving 

 her easily, first on one side and then on the other, biting her back and rump gently 

 as he did so. After a few seconds she lowered her body in the water and copulation 

 took place with the female entirely submerged save for the crown of her head while 

 half of tlie body of the male was under water. As the female emerged the male turned 

 immediately to face her and bowed deeply, giving a deep reedy call as he did so. 



Nesting. — In North Dakota, in 1901 we found the gadwall breeding 

 quite commonly on the islands in the larger lakes, particularly on 

 the islands in Stump Lake which are now set apart as a reservation 

 and protected. Baldpates and lesser scaup ducks were breeding 

 abundantly on the same islands, far outnumbering the gadwalls; 

 there was also a breeding colony of double-crested cormorants on 

 one island and colonies of ring-billed gulls and common terns on 

 two of them. The gadwall's nests were usually well concealed in 

 thick rank grass, tall reeds, dense clumps of wild rye, or patches of 

 coarse weeds; they were always on dry ground and never very near 

 the water. The nests consisted of hollows scooped in the ground 

 and well lined with strips or pieces of reeds, bits of dry grass, and 

 weed stems, or whatever material could be most easily gathered in 

 the vicinity, mixed with the down from the bird's breast; with 

 incomplete sets or fresh eggs very little down is found, but as incuba- 

 tion advances the down is added until the eggs are surrounded and 

 sometimes entirely covered with a profusion of dark gray down, 

 which is usually mixed with bits of grass or straw. 



Although the gadwall seems to prefer to nest on islands we found 

 a number of nests in Saskatchewan in meadows or on the open 

 prairie at long distances from water, where we flushed the birds from 

 their nests as we drove along; such nests were well concealed in thick 

 grass, which was often arched over them, or were hidden under 

 small sage or rose bushes. I have always found the gadwall a closr 

 sitter, flushed only when closely approached, but Mr. W. L. Dawson 

 (1909) has noted variations in this respect, as follows: 



