62 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 87 



no attempt to make a nest depression in the top. It was 

 loosely woven about several upright stems which served to 

 anchor it in place. Leading away from the nest were two 

 distinct paths which ended from twenty to thirty feet away. 

 The parent never flew directly to the nest but dropped into 

 the end of one of these paths and came stalking cautiously 

 to it. In leaving she always followed the other path and 

 took wing from the end of it. The paths were marked by a 

 broken and trampled line of vegetation and ended in a small 

 platform. Our boat was placed directly across the path for 

 leaving, and we had an opportunity to watch the building of 

 a new one. On the first visit noted she walked off through 

 the wild rice to the east of the nest, grasping the upright 

 stalks with her feet and climbing from one to another. Her 

 weight broke numbers of them and made the beginning of 

 the trail. After going about twenty-five feet, she commenced 

 to break other stalks down and lay them in a pile. Some 

 were already in the water and she soon had a platform 

 capable of sustaining her weight. The reeds were seized in 

 the beak and broken with a quick sidewise jerk of the head. 

 When the platform was finished, she stepped upon it and 

 stood there for a time before she flew away. 



During the watch on the twenty-ninth we saw her feed 

 only once and then did not get to see the entire process as 

 she entered quietly while we were watching the blackbirds 

 and had nearly finished feeding when we noticed her. We 

 were afraid the young would suffer for food on that day and 

 undertook to feed them. If there was one conspicuous thing 

 about the life in the swamp, it was the frogs — little fellows 

 some of them with the remains of a tail still visible. The 

 shore from three to five feet from the water's edge was 

 simply carpeted with them and a person walking along the 

 shore apparently sent almost the entire surface leaping into 

 the water. It was an easy matter to secure a number with 

 the aid of a stick, and we soon had between fifty and sixty in 

 a couple of cans. When these had all disappeared down the 

 five gaping throats in two feedings, about an hour apart, we 

 thought we understood the necessity for such great numbers 



