54 NOTES ON THE 



ducks of the commonwealth I In the denser portion of the vast 

 forest which embraces the inlets and bays of many clear and 

 beautiful lakes, I have cautiously sought a quiet covert toward 

 the evening of a warm day, from which to observe this 

 charming species in spring. Perfectly concealed in the 

 thickets within a yard of the deeply shadowed water, with my 

 field glass in hand, I have many times watched them by 

 hundreds, until the darkness hid them from my sight. These 

 occasions were in the season of their love, when the matchless 

 plumage of the males was displayed as at no other time in 

 their entire history. With the crest elevated, and like a 

 coronet on the head which is drawn backward as proudly as 

 the swan's, each male, an undisputed monarch of the mirror 

 lake, glides here and there, in and out in his ingenious and 

 undisguised endeavors to outdo every other in his imperial 

 display, until the seething resplendence seems to be one 

 moving scene of grace and indescribable beauty. During this 

 wondrous spectacular exhibition of motion, the woodland 

 echoes have frequently borne away the characteristic and 

 impassioned notes of the rival lovers, o-o-o-eek, o-o-o-eek. 

 Thus completely concealed as I was they would approach me 

 closer and closer as the shadows deepened until verily I could 

 have touched the nearer birds with a coachman's whip. 



At such times, by the aid of my constantly adjusted glass, I 

 could have numbered the very barbs of the primaries while they 

 paused to redress a recreant feather. I have found the nest of 

 this duck as early as the 15th of April, yet I think the average 

 of the nesting is not entered upon until about the 10th of May, 

 or a little later. Irdeed, one instance came under my notice 

 where the location was selected on the twenty- seventh of that 

 month, but it is more than probable that the bird had been 

 robbed of another of earlier date. That they rear two broods 

 occasionally seems very certain from their being found at dif- 

 ferent times with a young brood as late as July third, to the 

 tenth of that month. The location and character of the nest 

 have been given by the quotation from Audubon. Those eggs 

 which it has been my fortune to obtain have been pale green, 

 buff colored, and variously from six to fourteen in number. 

 Many flocks of this species linger until very late in the autumn. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Head and crest metallic green to below the eyes; the cheeks 

 and a stripe from behind the eyes purplish; a narrow, short 

 line from the upper angle of the bill along the side of the 

 crown, and through the crest, another on the upper eyelid; a 



