THE OS PREY. 



117 



preached, but at other times they are very loth to touching the water two or three times in rapid suc- 

 leave the water. I have followed them with a four- cession before gaining full headway. These same 

 oared boat, and when thoroughly alarmed they easily birds have another strange habit of flying at great 

 left the boat far behind, showing how swift their heights over the ocean and even across large islands, 

 progress through water may be. They become active and fly in this manner at dusk, 



The legs of these birds are very short, placed far and may be seen leaving the water in pairs, and 

 back on the body; this 



gives greater ease in _ ^ji''<r<^BB >^ M '^J 



swimming on the surface 

 of the water, which i s 

 their main use. They 

 cannot walk on land but 

 are capable of pushing 

 themselves over the rocks 

 with a shambling gait, if 

 their wings are disabled 

 When on land they sit on 

 the posterior ends of 

 their bodies with their 

 feet braced forward, the 

 whole length of the tar- 

 sus being in contact with 

 the ground. 



The flight of all the 

 Alcidie is very swift, being 

 accomplished by rapid 

 beats of the wings as with 

 Ducks. The Murrelets 

 fly faster than any bird I ever sa 



of computing the rate, but I should estimate it at not 

 less than one hundred miles an hour, and it is prob- 

 ably much more. The wings of these birds being so 

 short and narrow, modified for flight in water, neces- 

 sitates their very rapid beats in air to make up for 

 their small area, in order to sustain the weight of the 

 comparatively heavy body. 



NEST AND EGGS OF THE AMERICAN HERRING GULL. 

 PHOTOGRAPHED. IN SITU, NEAR ISLE AU HAUT, BY ORA W. KNIGHT. 



I had no means starting upwards uttering their wild, weird cries. 



The Indians do not know that the "little ducks," 

 which they see flying and diving about the bays dur- 

 ing the day, are the same which they hear at night 

 passing high over the mountains and islands, but 

 they say the latter are wonderful, strangely-colored 

 birds which raise their young in hollow trees high on 

 the mountain side, just below the snow-line; but no- 



The Murrelets have a peculiar habit when rising 

 from the surface of the water of falling back and body has ever reached them. 



A CORRECTION OF A FREQUENT MISSTATEMENT. 



LUDWIG KUMLIEN, M 



I WISH to call attention to a universal error in re- 

 gard to the plant chosen by the Yellow-headed 

 Blackbird for supporting its nest. I have read 

 often of late, even in " Bendire's Life Histories," that 

 the Yellow-head constructs its nest on stocks of wild 

 rice, etc. It is safe to say that this bird never builds its 

 nest among the so-called wild rice, at least not in the 

 Mississippi Valley. The grass commonly chosen for 

 this purpose is the common reed, PJiragmites com munis, 

 Trin. The stems of this grass are miniature canes, 

 and remain erect and firm through the winter, and 

 offer excellent support for the nest the following 

 spring ; often, if not always, green stalks (the growth 

 of the year,) are entwined with the dead ones, ap- 

 pearing as if they had grown up through the nest. 

 The so-called "wild rice" (properly the Indian rice, 

 or water oats, Zizanin aquatua, Linn,) does not show 



ILTON COLLEGE, WIS. 



the stems above water until the nesting time of the 

 Yellow-heads is past. It also grows in the open water; 

 that is, not on the more or less submerged shores, as 

 the reed does ; and it is. moreover, very weak stalked, 

 and is always broken down by the winter storms, ice, 

 etc. The Yellow-heads will build in other grasses, 

 ('. ,;'■., sedge ; and sometimes, though rarely, in willows. 

 Where P/irag/ni/es is plenty, however, they will choose 

 this plant nine times out of ten. 



This bird is one of the few that have increa.sed in 

 numbers in Southern Wisconsin during the past 

 twenty-five years. While collecting marsh birds and 

 eggs during different times in June, 1896, I found 

 more than one hundred nests, without looking for 

 them, in the same locality where, by diligent search, 

 I could not have found a dozen twenty-five years ago. 



