LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 37 



tended to by their anxious and watchful mothers. Not a male bird was on the lal^e, 

 which was fully 2 miles from the sea, and I concluded that in this species, as 

 in many others, the males abandon the females after incubation has commenced. 

 I watched their motions a good while, searching at the same time for nests, 

 one of which I was not long in discovering. Although it was quite destitute 

 of anything bearing the appearance of life, it still contained the down which 

 the mother had plucked from herself for the purpose of keeping her eggs 

 warm. It was placed under an alder bush, among rank weeds, not more than 

 8 or 9 feet from the edge of the water, and was formed of rather coarse grass, 

 with an upper layer of finer weeds, which were neatly arranged, while the 

 down filled the bottom of the cavity, now apparently flattened by the long 

 sitting of the bird. The number of young broods in sight induced me to search 

 for more nests, and in about an hour I discovered six more, in one of which I 

 was delighted to find two rotten eggs. 



The following extracts from Mr. L. M. Turner's notes will illus- 

 trate the nesting habits of this species in Ungava, where it probably 

 still breeds regularly : 



To the freshwater ponds, around whose margins high grasses and sedges 

 grow, the oldsquaws resort to build their nests. The nest is composed of grass 

 stalks and weeds to a depth of 2 or 3 inches, in which the first egg is de- 

 posited. This is covered with down plucked from the bird, and to it a greater 

 quantity is added as the number of eggs increases. The eggs, in the clutch, 

 vary from 5 to 17 ; 9 to 13 being the usual number. The distance of the nest 

 from salt water varies greatly, for I have seen a nest, on a small, low island, 

 not more than a yard from the edge of the water, and again I have found one 

 that was moi'e than half a mile, where a large lake on the level of the higher 

 land was connected by a swampy tract with the head of a long and deep but 

 narrow gulch through which a small stream coursed. 



A few pairs breed on the Pribilof Islands. I saw a pair on 

 the village pond on St. Paul Island, but did not have time to hunt 

 for its nest. Mr. William Palmer (1899) found a nest and nine eggs 

 about 40 feet from this pond on June 12. 



It was placed on a little hillock on the killing ground. When flushed, 

 about 10 feet off, the bird flew directly to its mate in the pond. Leaving 

 the eggs, I returned soon, to find that she had been back, had covered them 

 completely with down and dry, short grass, and returned to the pond. 



The main breeding grounds of the oldsquaw, in North America, 

 extend from the mouth of the Yukon all around the coast of 

 northern Alaska and all along the Arctic coast of the continent 

 and the northern islands to Greenland. Throughout the whole 

 of this region it is one of the most abundant ducks. The nests are 

 widely scattered over the tundra, but are more often found near 

 the shores of the small ponds or on little islands in them; the nest 

 is usually well concealed in thick grass or under small bushes, but 

 it is often found in open situations. The female is a close sitter, 

 and when she leaves the nest she covers it so skillfully with the 

 dark sooty brown down, grass, and rubbish that it matches its sur- 

 roundings and is about invisible. It is well that she does so for 



