162 GAME BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA 



On the Pacific slope, save for the instance noted below, this duck 

 has not been found breeding south of British Columbia. In the latter 

 place Brooks (1903, pp. 278-279) found it breeding much later than 

 the Canvasback or Ring-neck. The nests were usually placed in coarse 

 grass, with a path to water, generally a niuskrat 's runway, connecting 

 with the nearest open water. The first eggs were taken on June 21 

 and the clutches varied from seven to eleven in number. A nest with 

 ten eggs found by Chase Littlejohn at Glacier Bay, Alaska, July 16, 

 1907, was placed within a heavy growth of grass about a foot from 

 the water's edge and consisted of grass stems lined with a little down 

 from the parent's breast (Grinnell, 19096, p. 195). Nests found in 

 North Dakota by Bent (1902, p. 165) w^ere "all placed on dry ground 

 but never more than fifty yards from the water. They were gen- 

 erally rather i)oorly concealed in the prairie grass, but in some cases, 

 where the grass grew thick and high, they were fairly well hidden. 

 The nest consisted of a hollow scooped in the ground, profusely lined 

 with very dark colored, almost black, down, mingled with a little dry 

 grass and occasionally a white feather from the breast of the bird." 

 Evidence was obtained that the Lesser Scaup sometimes lays eggs in 

 the nests of other ducks. 



On Lake Merced, San Francisco County, Squires (1915, p. 234") 

 observed a pair of Lesser Scaups in July, 1915, with three young not 

 yet able to fly, and J. Mailliard (1915, p. 235) reports that two or 

 three families of "scaups" with young only a few days old had been 

 seen on Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, in the same 

 month. So far as could be learned these broods were not reared to 

 maturity. There is likelihood that these breeding birds had been 

 crippled or pinioned and were thus prevented from undertaking the 

 usual migration. 



Eggs taken in southeastern Alaska are plain olive buff and average 

 2.34 by 1.58. Twenty-six eggs from North Dakota averaged 2.26 by 

 1.59. "The lightest types approach somewhat the darkest types of 

 the Mallard's eggs, and the darkest types are rich dark buff or coffee- 

 colored" (Bent, 1902, p. 165). The male Blue-bills flock together 

 during the nesting season as is the habit in many other species of 

 ducks. 



In habits the Lesser Scaup is almost identical with tlie Greater 

 Scaup except that the former appears to be a little less restricted to 

 salt water. It is nearly always found in large flocks and resorts to the 

 larger bodies of open water. "Rafts" (large dense flocks) of these 

 ducks can often be seen during the day on the surface of open water, 

 Avith their heads tucked under their wings, sleeping. In spite of their 

 seeming obliviousness to their surroundings they are difficult to ap- 

 proach, and only a boat well concealed by brush or tules will enable 



