LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 3 



witli and scarce a foot back from the entrance, wliicli is usually rounded, 

 and from G to 15 inches in diameter, but occasionally is so small and irregular 

 that the whistler must have difficulty in forcing its bulky body through. I 

 remember one nest to which the only access was by means of a vortical slit 

 so narrow and jagged that it would ])arely admit my flattened hand. 



In Nortli Dakota, in 1901, we found goldcncyes nesting connnonly 

 in the timber belts around the shores of the Lakes and along the 

 streams in the Stump Lake region. 



The goldeneyes choose for their nesting sites the numerous natural 

 cavities which occur in many of the larger trees. They seem to show 

 no preference as to the kind of tree and not much preference as to 

 the size of the cavity, any cavity which is large enough to conceal 

 them being satisfactory. 



The occupied cavity can usually be easily recognized by the pres- 

 ence of one or two pieces of white down clinging to its edges ; some- 

 times considerable of the down is also scattered about on the nearest 

 branches. The first nest that we found, on May 30, was in an ex- 

 ceedingly small cavity in a dead branch of a small elm, about 10 

 feet from the ground. We heard a great scrambling and scratching 

 going on inside, as the duck climbed up to the small opening, through 

 which she wriggled out with some difficulty and flew away. I 

 measured the opening carefully and found it only 3 inches wide by 

 41/^ inches high; the cavity was about 3 feet deep and measured 

 6 inches by 7 inches at the bottom. The fresh eggs which it con- 

 tained were lying on the hare chips at the bottom of the cavit}^, sur- 

 rounded by a little white down. 



On June 1 we explored a large tract of heawy- thnber on a promon- 

 tory extending out into the lake for about half a mile, where we 

 located five nests of the American goldeneye. The first nest was 

 about 20 feet up in a cavity in the trunk of a large swamp oak and 

 contained 4 eggs, apparently fresh. The second was in the trunk of 

 a large elm and held only 1 egg, evidently a last year's egg. The 

 third, which held 5 eggs, was in an open cavity in an elm stub about 

 12 feet from the ground. None of these eggs were taken and doubt- 

 less the sets were incomplete. Wliile climbing to a Krider hawk's 

 nest I noticed an elm stub nearby with a large open cavity in the 

 top, which on closer investigation was found to contain a golden- 

 eye's nest with 10 eggs buried in a mass of white down. The stub 

 was about 10 feet high and the cavity about 2 feet deep; the bird 

 was not on the nest, but the eggs proved to have been incubated about 

 one week'. A pair of western house wrens also had a nest in the 

 dead branch above the cavity. 



The fifth and last nest was found while walking along the shore, 

 by seeing the goldeneye fly out over our heads from a small swamp 

 oak on the edge of the woods. I could almost reach the large (.])('n 



