192 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



with smaller pieces of dead reeds and u little gray dovra. The small patch of rt^eda 

 was completely surrounded by open water about knee-deep, and the nest was so well 

 concealed in the center of it as to be invisible from the outside. The eggs were also 

 collected on that day, and proved to be very much advanced in incubation. 



The other nests of the canvasback that we found were located in another slough, 

 about half a mile distant, which was really an arm of a small lake separated from the 

 main body of the lake by an artificial dyke or roadway with a narrow strip of reeds 

 and flags on either side of it. In the largo area thus inclosed tlie water was not much 

 more than knee-deep, except in a few open spaces where it was too deep to wade. 



Here among open, scattered reeds, the pied-billed grebes were breeding abun- 

 dantly. A few pairs of ruddy ducks had their nests well concealed among the tall 

 thick reeds. Coots and yellow-headed blackbirds were there in almost countless 

 numbers. Long-billed marsh wrens were constantly heard among the tall tliick flags. 

 Red-winged blackbirds, soras, and Virginia rails were nesting abimdantly in the short 

 grass around the edges. Marbled godwits and western willets were frequently seen 

 flying back and forth over the marshes acting as if their nests were not far away and 

 clamorously protesting at our intrusion. Killdeers and Wilson phalaropes hovered 

 about us along the shores. Such is the liome of the canvasback, an ornithological 

 paradise; a rich field indeed for the naturalist, fairly teeming with bird life. Oiu time 

 was well occupied during our visit to this interesting locality, and the days were only 

 too short and too few to study the many interesting phases of bird life before us, but 

 we devoted considerable time to the canvasback, and, after much tiresome wading, 

 succeeded in finding three more nests in this slough. The first of these was found on 

 June 8, while wading through a thick patch of very tall flags, higher than our lieads; 

 we flushed the female from her nest and had a good look at her head as she flew out 

 across a little open space. The nest was well concealed among the flags, but not far 

 from the edge. It was well built of dead flags and reeds in water not quite knee- 

 deep, and was sparingly lined ^ith gray down. This nest contained 11 eggs, 7 of the 

 canvasback and 4 of the redhead, which were collected on Jime 13 and found to be on 

 the point of hatching. 



Another nest, found on June 8, was located in a small, isolated clump of reeds, 

 surrounded by water over knee-deep, on the edge of a large pondlike opening in the 

 center of the slough, as is admirably illustrated in the photograph kindly loaned me 

 by Mr. Job. The nest was beautifully made of dead and green reeds firmly inter- 

 woven, held in place by the growing reeds about it, and sparingly lined with gray 

 down. It was built up out of the water, and was about 5 inches above the surface 

 of the water; the external diameter was about 14 inches and the inner cavity 

 measured 7 inches across by 4 inches deep. The nest and eggs, now in my collection, 

 were taken on June 11, at which time incubation was only just begun; it contained 

 eight eggs of the canvasback and one of the ruddy duck. All the canvasbacks* 

 nests that we found contained one or more eggs of the ruddy duck or redhead, but 

 we never found the eggs of the canvasback in the nest of anj' other species. The 

 canvasbacks are close sitters, generally flushing within 10 feet of us, so that we had 

 no difiiculty in identifying thorn by the peculiar shape of the head; in general 

 appearance they resemble the redheads very closely, except that the female canvas- 

 back is lighter colored above. The gray down in the nest will also serve to distin- 

 guish it from the redhead's nest, which is generally more profusely lined with 

 white down. 



In the extensive marshes near the southern end of Lake Winni- 

 pegosis and about the Waterhen River in Manitoba we found canvas- 

 backs breeding abundantly in 1913, where wo had ample opportu- 

 nities for studying their nesting habits and the development of the 



