all 
528 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
Female.— Head with a compressed occipital crest; head and neck chestnut, 
above ashy; beneath salmon-colored; white of greater coverts with a terminal bar 
of ashy (sometimes wanting); the black of base of secondaries entirely concealed; 
outer tertials ash. 
Head without conspicuous crest, though one is visible in life. Head and most of 
neck all round very dark green; rest of neck and the body generally, except the 
upper part, creamy-white, deepening to salmon-red beneath. Lower part of back, 
rump, and tail feathers, plumbeous; forepart of back, interscapular region, and inner 
scapulars, black. 
Length, twenty-six and fifty one-hundredths inches; wing, eleven; tarsus, one 
and eighty-four one-hundredths; commissure, two and ninety one-hundredths inches. 
Although this species is found on our coast through the 
autumn and winter months, where it has all the habits of 
the other Sea Ducks, it breeds in the neighborhood of fresh- 
water lakes and streams far in the interior. It is one of 
the most abundant summer residents in the lake region 
of Northern Maine, and about the Umbagog Lakes and Rich- 
ardson Lakes it is the most common Duck. 
There, in the top of some tall stump, or in a high forked 
branch of a dead pine, it builds its nest. In many localities 
on the borders of these lakes, the spring inundations or 
some other causes have destroyed whole acres of gigantic 
hemlocks, which, standing for years, become, in consequence 
of the bark falling off, perfectly smooth and difficult of 
ascent. When such trees are broken at the height of thirty 
or forty feet from the ground, leaving a jagged top, no better 
nesting-place can be found; because it not only secures the 
bird and eggs from the attacks of predaceous animals, but 
it guarantees to the nest a perfect security from any inunda- 
tions that may arise. This nest is built of leaves, moss, and 
pieces of grass, which are arranged in a deep layer, on which 
a thin covering of down from the breast of the bird is placed. 
This is hollowed to the depth of two or three inches, and it 
is ready for the eggs. These are from seven to twelve in 
number. Their form is almost always exactly oval. Their 
color is a pale creamy-white; sometimes a little darker, 
almost a very pale buff. They vary in dimensions from 
2.80 by 1.80 inch (Milltown, Me.) to 2.50 by 1.70 inch. 
