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490 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
meadow, near a pond or stream, but sometimes in a swamp 
in which a small brook is the only water for miles around. 
This species sometimes follows these small brooks up to 
their sources ; and I once found one with a nest on a low 
stump that overhung a small spring on the side of a hill, a 
mile from any other water. ‘The nest of this species is con- 
structed of pieces of grass and weeds, which are neatly 
arranged into a structure eighteen inches in diameter on 
the outside, and three or four in depth. This is hollowed 
for perhaps an inch and a half or two inches, and lined 
with the down and feathers from the breast of the parent- 
bird. The eggs are from seven to ten in number: their 
form is usually ovoidal; and their color varies from an 
olivaceous-yellow to a dirty yellowish-white. If a dozen of 
these, and an equal number of the eggs of the Mallard, 
are placed side by side, it is almost impossible to identify 
them, so closely do they resemble each other. The eggs 
of the present species vary from 2.50 by 1.72 inch (Lake 
Umbagog) to 2.26 by 1.65 (Weston, Mass.). They aver- 
age about 2.34 by 1.74 (Nova Scotia). Early in Septem- 
ber, the Dusky Duck gathers in flocks of fifteen or 
twenty. It is now so difficult of approach, that the experi- 
enced gunner seldom attempts to secure it by stalking it. 
The method by which the greater number are killed is as 
follows: The sportsman, knowing the localities most fre- 
quented by these flocks,— generally meadows in which 
streams of water or small ponds are abundant,— builds a 
bower near the water, about six feet square, and five or six 
high, of the limbs of pines and other dense foliaged trees, 
in which he secretes himself at daybreak, armed with one or 
two heavy double-barrelled guns, and provided with three 
or four tame ducks. One of these ducks he anchors or 
moors out in the water, half a gunshot from the bower. 
The duck, soon becoming lonesome, begins to call, when, if 
there are any wild ducks in the neighborhood, they answer 
the call in an almost exactly similar note, and soon fly to 
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