AMONG THE WATER FowL 
near it for anchorage and shade. In location only 
was it like a Grebe’s nest, being dry, deep and 
bulky, though with little down. A recent storm, 
probably, had partly upset it, and several of the 
fifteen large white eggs were lying on the edge or 
spilled out into the water. It seemed almost im- 
possible that such a little bird as a Ruddy Duck 
should have laid that pile of eggs, several times its 
own weight, in less than three weeks. When I first 
saw a Ruddy’s eggs I could hardly believe they were 
properly identified, as they are larger than the eggs 
of the Mallard or the Canvasback. 
Canvasback, Redhead, and Ruddy Ducks can be 
classed together in the nesting season. They all 
build elaborate nests in the rushes out over deep 
water, and when one is found in a slough the other 
members of the triumvirate are also likely to occur. 
As though in proof of this, I saw, as I inspected this 
nest, a female Canvasback, followed by eight young, 
swimming across the lane of water. Not far away, 
as later I waded from the boat into the rushes, I 
came upon a fine nest of the Redhead, canopied 
over with the dry rushes, with thirteen Redhead 
eggs and two of the Ruddy Duck, and then, still 
another, in some long grass growing out of deep 
water, very bulky and downy, with eleven Redhead 
eggs and one of the Ruddy. 
But it is not only amid grass and rushes that the 
nests of Ducks are found, though many people sup- 
pose this to be the case. To such a sight that I wit- 
nessed would be a revelation. It was ‘*Memorial 
196 
