50 NOTES ON THE 



tensive marshes, where for the time the tadpoles have attracted 

 them by their abundance. But they were here before that 

 time, having followed closely upon the track of the Mallards 

 and other early ducks 



In large and medium flocks, they will then be found along the 

 recently opened streams, and in the woodlands where they 

 spend much of their time in search of acorns, insects, snails, 

 and larvse of different kinds, which are under the wet leaves 

 and on the old decaying logs with which the forests abound. 

 Under these circumstances, they scatter widely, so that the 

 first one encountered will seem to be a wanderer, but a little 

 distance away another will be flushed, and so until several 

 have flown off before the flock will rise as a whole, and perhaps 

 not even then if no gun has been fired to simultaneously disturb 

 them. Yet, when in the water they rarely scatter much, but 

 swim very compactly as a flock, uttering a low chattering note 

 as they move evenly along over the quiet surface. If driven to 

 wing, they rise as compactly as they swim, a circumstance in 

 their habits which has been noticed through their history, and 

 has been made available and profitable by the pothunters. I 

 have no reliable evidence that they breed in the southern por- 

 tions of the State, but find them doing so limitedly in the mid- 

 dle, and commonly in the northern. They have been found 

 with the young in July in several localities, and samples of 

 their eggs which were taken from their nests in early June in 

 Becker county have been sent to me by Mr. Blanche of Detroit. 

 Mr. Treganowan reported the presence of the species in Kan- 

 diyohi county in June and July, and Mr. Lewis in early August 

 at Big Stone. Near Herman in Grant county, a German farmer 

 saw them at different times during the summer, and shot some 

 of them in August which he had mounted, that established 

 their identity. I was many years ago told that this species was 

 breeding in Medina in my own county, but never having found 

 them breed myself, I took this statement with some qualifica 

 tion until I found the adult birds myself, following which the 

 eggs were brought to me from the same vicinity by Mr. J. C. 

 Bailey, who resided there for many years. 



They are among the shyest of the Duck family, and might 

 elude common observation for a long period in any section 

 while fairly represented. About the second week in October, 

 often somewhat earlier, they begin to leave us in this locality, 

 and are all gone by the first of November. 



