'THE OSPEEY. 



36 



'The remaining- daylig-ht was utilized in 

 taking' a set of three Ferrnginons liough-leg- 

 ged Hawlv's eggs, examining a tew nests of 

 Swainson's HawU. witli incomplete sets, dig- 

 ging out tlie hole of a Burrowing Owl, and get- 

 ting baclv to camp with the boat, whicli we liad 

 to cart eight miles, reacliing our destination at 

 9 p. m. We were greatly i^leased witli the lo- 

 cality, and I thought we had done well to find 

 eren four ducks' nests — but wait! 



Monday, June 27, found us back on the old 

 camping-ground, liain had fallen for a week 

 almost incessantly, but now we were favored 

 with a clear, still day, of which we took advan- 

 tage for another visit to the islands. Launch- 

 ing from the shore nearest to them, a Piping 

 I'lover protested against the intrusion, fearing 

 we should step on her y<iung, which I saw 

 crouching among stones on the beach. Our 

 party was of three this time, and one, not an 

 ornithologist, remained with the horses to kill 

 flies. 



Island No. 3 was the first we visited this 

 time. A cloud of Common Terns and some 

 Eing-tailed (iulls hovered over it. Hardly had 

 we stepped from the boat when up went a 

 Gadwall from the weeds, leaving her .six in- 

 cubated eggs for us to admire. Half a dozen 

 steps more and away fluttered a female Bald- 

 pate from her eight fresh creamy-white eggs; 

 then another of the same species a fe^v feet 

 further on from a set of ten. Each nest was 

 placed under a clump of weeds among the 

 loose rocks. Then, as I retraced my steps to- 

 ward the boat, a Lesser Scaup flew from the 

 grass three rods ahead of 

 me. After a little search, I 

 found her set of nine choco- 

 late-lirnwn beauties. 



Meanwhile my companion 

 was poking over a clump of 

 rose bushes near by, on the 

 summit of the island, and, 

 seeing some rubbish with h 



little down clinging to it, 



pulled it apart and un- 

 earthed seven great dirty 



flesh-colored eggs of the 



White-winged Scoter. The 



nest was little more than 



a hollow in the damp 



earth, with a rim of 



straws, stems and sticks, 



lined with a small amount 



of dark gray or blackish 



down. The eggs were 



fresh and cold, the set in- 

 complete. The bird had 



scraped loam over the 



nest, with other debris, 



and it seemed like digging 



potatoes to get the nest 



into shape to photograph. 



This set n»e hunting for 



more Scoters' nests, and it 



was but a moment or so before I dug from under 

 a small clump of brush close by a similar nest 

 with one buried egg, the bird having just begun to 

 lay. 



Now Scaups and Baldpates started from their 



nests every few steps. To ascertain if the 



Greater Scaup was not there, I shot three 

 Scaups, much as I disliked to do it, measure- 

 ment of which proved them all to be the Lesser 

 (Fuligula aliinis). 



So incessant and startling was the fluttering 

 up of ducks from beneath our feet that we 

 both got "rattled" and forgot where some of 

 them were when we thought to take a second 

 look. I got so far beliind with my notes that 

 I had to give up taking an exact account of all 

 the finds. On this island were at least six sets 

 each of Scaup's and Baldj)ate's eggs, one of 

 (iadwell's, and two, incomplete, of Scoter's. 



But this was by no means all, for the island 

 was strewn all over with sets of the Common 

 Tei-n's eggs, in twos and threes, in all stages of 

 incubation. Quite a number had hatched, and 

 the young were skulking everywhere amid the 

 grass and weeds. A few sets of King-billed 

 Gull's were also found — probably second sets 

 of pairs robbed on the other islands. 



Next we rowed to Island No. 2, the largest 

 of the group. The whole King-billed Gull col- 

 ony seemed to be here. Whole rafts of j'oung 

 grulls ran down from among the rocks and 

 swam out as we approached. It was the same 

 as on the other island with the ducks. We 

 walked through the patches and clumps of 

 grass and weeds along half of the soulh shore 

 of the island, and found more Baldpate's and 

 Scaup's eggs than we could have carried, had 

 we desired to take them all. Selecting a few 

 choice sets, my companion volunteered to carry 

 them to the boat, while I kept on. 



It got to be an old story — Baldpate, 10; 

 Scaup, 11; Scaup, 8; Baldpate, 9. These were the 



^^1^ 

 ^1^ 



NEST OF GADWALL. 



numbers u.s\ial in the sets of these two species; 

 six was the minimum and twelve the maxi- 

 mum. The nests of both were similar to those 

 of most ducks that nest on high ground — a 

 little hollow, in a tussock of grass or weeds, 

 with a somewhat scanty bed of soft grass, rounded 



