THE OSPREY. 



127 



Ruddy, and lined with down, was a veritable nest of American Bittern nesting. I found a nest containing 



the Pintail. The female was at home, and permitted four young, the largest of which seemed more than 



approach within six feet ; and I stood some moments half grown, and every one of which spat at me like 



watching her curiously and regretting the absence of an angry cat and fiercely attacked my hand thrust 



my camera before I realized that this was the Pintail down to them. I had e.xposed every plate in my 



in a very unusual situation. If I could have success holders, and had none for this fine subject, 



fully photographed a sitting Pintail from a distance Some days later on stopping at a farm house for 



of six feet I do not know but it would have been a water, a small boy brought out for my inspection a 



record. The eggs were five in number, and clean large pasteboard box half filled with unblown eggs of 



enough to be fresh. the Virginia and Carolina Rail in proportions about 



The nest of the Canvas-back shown in the illustra- equal. A single flooded meadow near the house had 



lion was discovered June 27 in a dense mass of bul- furnished about 200 eggs to one small searcher. This 



rushes growing six feet high in the edge of a large instance of misdirected energy in the collection of 



lake, and where 

 the water was 

 between two and 

 three feet deep. 

 The eight eggs 

 contained feath- 

 ered embryos, 

 and the setting 

 bird was suffi- 

 ciently solicitous 

 to give me an 

 excellent oppor- 

 tunity to exam- 

 ine her by splash- 

 ing about excit- 

 edly in the open 

 water close at 

 hand. After pho- 

 tographing nest 

 and eggs I car- 

 ried out the drip- 

 ping nest (which 

 might have filled 

 a bushel basket,) 

 which with the 

 down and eggs 

 was carefully 

 collected and 

 sent to Mr.O.W. 

 Knight of the Maine State University 



NEST AND EGGS OF THE CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 

 PHOTOGRAPH BY E. S. ROLFE. 



eggs reminds me 

 to speak of an- 

 other that came 

 under my obser- 

 vation here : A 

 group of Turtle 

 Mountain In- 

 dians and half- 

 breeds on their 

 way from their 

 home to the Dev- 

 il's Lake Indian 

 Reser\ation, 

 camped near 

 M i n n e wa ukan 

 last spring. They 

 had with them 

 boxes and pails 

 filled with eggs 

 of many different 

 species, ranging 

 from those of the 

 Canada Goose 

 and Ferruginous 

 Rough-leg down 

 to the Horned 

 Lark. Into the 

 kettle over the 

 camp-fire these 

 were broken indiscriminateh-, revealing all possible 



Thirty feet from this nest and over water equally stages of incubation and other worse conditions, and 



deep was the nest of a Marsh Hawk containing half- a result was obtained that seemed eminently satisfying 



grown young. The structure was founded simply on to the Indian palate, which, by the way, is a curious 



a floating mass of dead rushes that would have sus- organ that knows well and relishes flesh of any kind 



tained a weight of twenty-five pounds without collaps- or condition from carrion to fresh polecat. And yet 



ing, and was well built up of hay, rushes and twigs, the passing of the Redman is deplored! 



As I stood at the nest, up to the limit of my hip boots. While rope-dragging a stubble field near town on 



the parent bird returned from some foray and dis- June 27, a male Prairie Sharp-tail Grouse flushed 



covered the intruder and for the space of a couple of underfoot and sailed away a short distance uttering 



minutes I did not feel certain her angry swoops would the peculiar note that marks the cock. Immediately 



not reach my face. I have seen a nest of this species from about my feet jumped a total of 13 young just 



in a spot that was oozy and wet underfoot, but never barely able to fly and apparently not over two weeks 



before in a situation over any considerable depth of out of the shell When I had counted the last and 



water. was about to step ahead, the female left the ground 



With surroundings almost identical this year, ex- within twenty inches of my feet, disclosing a nest of 



cept that the water was not quite so deep, I found the 12 fresh-looking eggs. The family of young in charge 



