AMONG THE WaTER FowL 
while I set up the camera and snapped at them 
the instant the hat was removed. As soon as we 
allowed them to they all streamed out of the nest, 
and down the 
bank into, the 
water, to join 
their distressed 
mother, who was 
flapping about 
near the shore 
calling to them 
in-.a plaintive 
manner. In one 
patch of lowrose- 
bushes. there 
were: ? thier 
Ducks? mess 
“A SHOVELER FLUSHED AT OUR FEET FROM THE GRASS, within less than 
AND THERE WERE TEN YOUNG IN THE NEST” ten feet 4 Sco- 
ter’s with twelve eggs, a Gadwall’s with eleven, and 
a Scaup’s with ten —quite an aggregation, those 
thirty-three eggs! 
During a week’s time that we spent among the 
sloughs first mentioned in this chapter, from June 
7 to 14, we found a considerable number of nests 
of the Canvasback, Redhead, and Ruddy Ducks, 
built out in the reeds over water averaging knee- 
deep, all of which made a very interesting study. 
The Ruddy Ducks were only just laying, and had 
anywhere from one to ten eggs. ‘These nests, un- 
like the one previously mentioned, were well hidden 
away in the reeds, usually in the midst of a large 
clump or tract in the very thickest of the vegeta- 
202 
