LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 161 



Mr. William B. Crispin gave me his notes on a nest which he found 

 near Salem, New Jersey, on April 25, 1908; it was in a natural cavity 

 in a sour gum tree 40 feet from the ground; the 16 eggs were 3 feet 

 below the opening in a nest of down mixed with dry leaves, which 

 were probably taken there by squirrels the previous season; two gray 

 squirrels were living just a few inches below the nest. 



Mr. Henry R, Buck (1893) describes a nest found in a hole in a 

 large apple tree near Hartford, Connecticut, as follows: 



This tree was hardly 5 rods from an occupied house, and perhaps three times as 

 far from a well-traveled road leading to the city. There was nothing to hide it from 

 the road, and only a few trees in the immediate neighborhood. The trunk was hol- 

 low and had a wide split in one side from a height of 6 feet nearly to the ground. 



I have a set of 14 eggs in my collection, taken in Norton, Massa- 

 chusetts, on May 8, 1892, from a hollow apple tree; the cavity was 3 

 or 4 feet deep and the eggs lay in their bed of down 3 feet below 

 the opening and only 2 feet above the ground. I found a nest in 

 Taunton, Massachusetts, on May 19, 1917, containing 9 eggs, about 

 40 feet from the ground in a dead pine tree in a grove of tall trees 

 near a house; the tree was so rotten that the cavity, which had once 

 been a flicker's nest, had broken open and much of the down had 

 fallen out and was scattered around the grove; a few feet below the 

 duck's nest was a gray squirrel's nest in a cavity, with several half 

 grown young in it. I was shown another nest, near Taunton, in a 

 natural cavity in a large elm, about 30 feet from the ground; the 

 tree stood close to a much-traveled road and in the front yard of a 

 farm house. Mr. R, S. Wheeler found a nest in a barn near the 

 Sacramento River, California; the birds entered through a hole in 

 the boards and built a nest in the hay. Mr. Herbert K. Job found 

 a nest similarly located in a barn located near Kent, Connecticut. 

 Mr. Arthur T. Wayne (1910) found a nest in South Carolina on 

 April 25, 1906. "The eight eggs were nearly hatched, and were 

 laid in a sleeping hole of the pileated woodpecker, in a living sweet 

 gum tree, 40 feet above the ground and more than a mile from 

 the nearest reservoir." Mr. T. G. Pearson (1891) found a nest in 

 Florida, on April 13, containing 13 fresh eggs. "The nest was in a 

 hollow stump 30 feet from the ground. The entrance had been made 

 by a yellow-shafted flicker, and it really seemed impossible for a duck 

 to pass in and out of a hole of such small size. The nest was lined 

 with a thick layer of downy feathers from the breast of the old bird." 

 Mr. Walter B. Sampson (1901) records a nest, which he found in Cal- 

 ifornia on April 29, 1900, "in a deserted home of a red-shafted flicker 

 and placed about 25 feet up in a white oak tree "; this nest contained 

 the remarkable number of 21 eggs. 



The down in the wood duck's nest is grayish white or " palhd 

 mouse gray," with nearly pure white centers. More or less rubbish 



