AMONG THE WaTER Fow Lt 
United States. Numerous individuals had been 
hanging around these islands all the spring, and I 
knew they must be breeding somewhere about. 
This nest was little more than a hollow in the 
damp earth, with a rim of straw, stems, and sticks, 
lined with a small amount of dark gray down. The 
eggs were fresh and cold, the set incomplete. The 
bird had scraped loam over the nest, and it seemed 
like digging potatoes to get at the eggs and prepare 
the nest to photograph. This set me to hunting 
for more Scoters’ nests, and it was but a moment 
or so before | dug from under a small clump yon 
brush close by a similar nest with only one buried 
egg, the Scoter having but just begun to lay. 
Then a Gadwall got up from her set of tem 
white eggs, and, as we proceeded, at every few 
steps Gadwalls, Scaups, and Baldpates started from 
their nests. So incessant was the fluttering up of 
Ducks from beneath our feet that my mind became 
utterly confused, so far as taking exact account of 
the various nests was concerned. 
The matter of identifying nests had its difficul- 
ties. Although subsequent investigation has cleared 
away most of the uncertainties, I find myself obliged 
to confess that it is practically impossible, under 
many circumstances, in the hurry of a Duck’s de- 
parture when flushed from a nest, to distinguish 
positively, for instance, between the female Gad- 
wall and Baldpate. The latter seems to have rather 
more white on the wing-bar, and is of a slightly 
lighter gray plumage,—that is about all. The eggs 
of both are white, and although sets of the Bald- 
pate are usually the more. creamy; lam notcer. 
190 
