LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 123 



over another's head and down again with a great splash, and the other as likely as 

 not will repeat the same trick, especially two males of two pairs playing together. 



Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1920) says: 



These single males persisted in paying attention to females already mated, much 

 to the disgust of the paired drakes, who drove them away, bowing at them and chat- 

 tering angrily. On one occasion six were seen making demonstration toward one 

 female who paid no attention to them, but followed her mate. Ho swam first at one 

 and then another after each chase returning to his mate and bowing rapidly, while 

 occasionally she bowed to him in return. After a few minutes another mated pair 

 of teal flew by and four of the males flew off in pursuit of them, leaving the first 

 males only two to combat. 



Nesting. — Mr. Dawson has also sent me more or less data on some 

 two dozen nests of this species found in Washington and about a 

 dozen found in California, from which I have made a few selections 

 to illustrate the variations in nesting habits. A nest containing nine 

 eggs, found at Stratford, Washington, on June 8, 1906, v/as located 

 while dragging a rope in a pasture. The nest was a deep depression 

 in the ground in a "loose clump of rye grass, lined sparsely with bits 

 of grass and copiously with down. The down arches up at the hin- 

 der end and makes a little rear wall above the ground. Depth 5 

 inches; width 5 inside." On the same day he flushed a bird from a 

 nest of 11 eggs in a "thick clump of yellow dock and mint. The 

 rope gave a vicious tug at the clump else she never would have flown." 

 On his return later to photograph the nest, he peered down into the 

 vegetation and surprised the teal at home; she struggled vv^ildly to 

 escape and left the usual deluge of fresh excrement on the eggs, as 

 evidence of her fright. The nest was "a shallow depression scantily 

 lined with broken grass and trash, and heavily with dark dov>-n"; it 

 measured "6 inches across and 3 deep inside." All of the other 

 Washington nests were apparently on dry ground, concealed in tall 

 grass or rank herbage, often on high land and many of them were 

 from 75 to 200 feet away from the nearest water. The California 

 nests were in more varied situations. On May 13, 1911, in Nigger 

 Slough, near Los Angeles, he flushed a bird at close quarters in heavy 

 saAV grass;" the nest was "built up above damp earth" and contained 

 11 fresh eggs. On May 24, 1912, at Los Banos, he found two nests 

 "buried in the heart of cat-tails built up to a height of some 6 inches 

 out of a foot of water" ; the " nests were really woven baskets placed 

 in the depths of the reeds, an unusual situation for cinnamon teals." 



One of these nests originally held eight eggs of the teal; but two 

 eggs of the mallard had l)een added and three of the teal's eggs had 

 been thrown out into the water; this nest "was built up of dried cat- 

 tail and sedges, 5 inches high in the center and 9 at the edges, with 

 a free way to the water after the manner of coots. It was about 7 

 inches across," and was wet and bulky. 



