164 Bird-Nesfiiig 



half a mile wide. The Canadian Pacific Railway crosses over 

 it, and I was now at the soiith end of the lake. 



The lake is surrounded with tall rushes and wild rice which 

 grows seven feet high. The place swarmed with birds, and 

 only those who have visited a similar spot, can form any idea 

 of the number and variety of wild fowls frequenting such a 

 marsh. Out in the open water were red-heads, canvas-backs, 

 scaups, and ring-billed ducks, blue-winged teals, shovellers, 

 mallards, western, red-necked, and horned grebe, coots, and 

 other water-birds, while amongst the rushes were hundreds 

 of yellow-headed blackbirds, red-winged starlings, and marsh 

 wrens. 



On reaching the margin of the lake I began to examine the 

 rushes, and soon found a number of nests of the yellow-headed 

 blackbird : they are handsome birds with brilliant orange- 

 coloured heads and breasts. Their nests are cup-shaped, and 

 made of grasses and tine rushes, and contain four or five 

 effo-s each, which resemble the lark family more than the 

 blackbirds. 



Long-billed marsh wrens' nests were numerous, and after 

 examining about a dozen nests I found one containing six 

 eo-gs. The water soon came over ray boot tops, but I did 

 not mind getting my legs wet, for I saw I was going to have 

 some sport. 



Just in front of me I saw a large basket-shaped nest, cov- 

 ered with grass and aquatic plants, and brushing them ofi", I 

 found the nest to contain a beautiful clutch of twelve eggs 

 of the canvas-backed duck. The birds were swimming out 

 on the lake not far away. The nest was similar to that of a 

 coot, and the eggs rested on a bed of down and feathers. They 

 were pale greenish-drab, and as large as the eggsxjf the red- 

 head. I saw the eggs were fresh, so I put them in my hand- 

 kerchief and waded towards dry land. A few yards farther, 

 and a Carolina crake stumbled off" its nest, just before my 

 feet. The nest was about the size of a basin and made of 

 sedges, and contained eight buff-coloured eggs, spotted with 

 reddish brown. 



