48 NOTES ON THE 



could be indistinctly seen, even at that distance. These are 

 generally very irregular in their course, greatly increasing 

 the distance to any point they approach, and hence very mis- 

 leading to any one not aware of their habits. It occurred to 

 me at once that she was following such a devious way, as she 

 advanced so indirectly and apparently hesitatingly. She never 

 paused, however, until having arrived at a spot quite near a 

 solitary bunch, or patch of rank growth, when after a moment's 

 pause, and survey, she dropped her briefly elevated head and 

 disappeared in that patch of rank vegetation. Except the re- 

 stricted covert thus afforded, she could scarcely have selected 

 a more exposed location, as it was jilainly in view for a dis- 

 tance of three-fourths of a mile in the direction from which I 

 saw her, and only a little less in any other one except directly 

 opposite my location, which was slightly interrupted by the 

 further elevation of the land. Marking down the location with- 

 out the slightest difficulty,! drove on to my destination, not very 

 far beyond, passing much nearer to the spot in my way, I did not 

 return for some two hours, but on doing so drove directly to 

 the spot and upon carefully parting the rank prairie grass, 

 avoided by the grazing cattle on account of its being the pro- 

 duct of a deposit of their offal late in the previous year, I at 

 once discovered the nest with five pale greenish-yellow eggs.* 

 They had the faintest tinge of olivaceous- gray, and measured 

 on an average, a little more than 2 by 1.50 inches. Being called 

 to the same place again after ten days, I drove to the spot, and 

 drove the duck from her nest to find she had fourteen eggs, 

 settling the question of her depositing one each day after she 

 began laying. My discovery of the nest was on the 23d day of 

 May. In early seasons they occasionally arrive in their 

 spring migration by the 5th of April, but usually somewhat 

 later. More commonly they are then seen in small flocks only, 

 yet I have known them in an exceptional year to appear in 

 very large ones, but when such is the case I have observed 

 that such flocks do not remain long, but pass on north further, 

 suggesting that their destination is probably the highest lati- 



*VVhen referring to the habits of the Shovellers iti breeding, I should have said that 

 while they frequently go so far frora the water to build their nests, such is not their 

 uniform custom, for more frequently the nests are to be found quite near it. i^neof 

 them I found in a clump of rushes within a yard of running water, and another in the 

 middle of a broad marsh, half a mile from water deep enough for the duck to swim In. 

 The structure consists of such materials as are most easily obtained at and near the 

 spot. The one first mentioned, on the open prairie, consisted entirely of dried grass, 

 overlaid with feathers from the ijird's own breast; while the latter two were con- 

 structed of rushes and reeds. They otherwise are liife most duclc nests, rather firmly 

 built of a liberal supply of material The market stalls bear testimony that nearly 

 all sections are represented by this species, at least in the game season. 



