AMONG THE WaTER Fowt 
see more of the little-known nesting-habits of the 
Scoters. As. they “seemed to select “elumpsme: 
bushes, I felt, as I neared the only clump on this 
island, that there must be a Scoters’ mest wndemes 
shade. Nor was I disappointed, as I cautiously 
parted the bushes and looked in. There, about a 
yard from me, sat a female Scoter on her nest, the 
picture of consternation, as our glances met. My 
first thought was to get the camera and_photo- 
graph her on the nest, so I cautiously withdrew. 
But the bird by this time recovered her presence 
of mind. The bushes parted and she waddled out 
past me, almost brushing against me, then taking 
to wing, at length to drop into the lake and dive. 
The nest contained thirteen fresh eggs. Probably, 
as with most other Ducks on these islands and 
elsewhere, from eight to eleven is the ordinary 
number of eggs in the full complements. On 
another visit to these islands a friend of mine ac- 
tually caught a Scoter on her nest and obliged 
her to sit for her picture -ere he Testoredsmenman 
freedom. 
The next day I made a visit to the slough where, 
over a month before, I had seen so many kinds of 
Ducks. We had first to dig out a boat on the large 
lake, that a gale had nearly filled with gravel, ere we 
could take it along with us on the buckboard. The 
rushes and grass had grown very high, and it was 
not as easy as before to see the Ducks, though 
there wete plenty of them. ‘Here, at last. eioume 
my first nest of the Ruddy Duck. It was a genu- 
ine floating structure, built out in the middle of the 
slough in deep water, with only a few stems of grass 
194 
