820 THE RUDDY DUCK. 
on head and neck, was the brilliant cobalt hue of his bill. It was not 
merely blue, but a glowing blue. He dove repeatedly and emerged each 
time radiant with beaded moisture. And as he warily passed our bows, 
he paused now and again to make gestures whose significance, whether 
of fear or defiance, | could not well determine, altho I suspect the latter. 
He first reared his head and tail to the utmost, straight up and_ parallel 
to each other; then let his head subside by spasmodic jerks, as tho he 
were a bag of wind and somebody were deflating him by successive raps 
upon the head. Each subsidence was accompanied by a little grunt, and 
to conclude the whole he thrust Ins head suddenly forward with a grunt 
louder than all; thus: chut - chut - chut-chut-chelub, It was a proper 
ridiculous performance from a human standpoint, but I suppose if I had 
been a drake Ruddy, I should have flown into a pretty passion and given 
him a drubbing for his impudence. This particular bird was a fat ras- 
cal, for when he tired of issuing vain challenges, he took to wing, and 
as he did so, altho aided by a light breeze, he found it necessary to pat- 
ter upon the surface of the water for at least a hundred feet before he 
cleared. 
Ruddy Ducks nest in small numbers upon some of our interior lakes. 
During the nesting season the female is excessively timid and may not 
often be seen—never in the vicinity of her nest. The male, on the con- 
trary, spends much of his time in the open water hobnobbing with grebes 
and Redheads, and seems to have about as important business as the average 
politician. The nest is hidden in the reeds of some low island or marshy 
brink. The birds are said to occupy old Coot’s nests at times and at others 
to build up very handsome structures of their own, raising the eggs a foot 
or so above the surface of the water; but the nest here figured was placed 
upon the wet muck of a swampy island in Moses Lake. 
No greater surprise could be devised in odlogical duckdom than the egg 
of a Ruddy Duck. With surface rough and chalky where others are oil- 
finished, dead white where others are tinted, it is still the extraordinary 
size which provokes astonishment. The bird is notably small as ducks 
go, altho of a compact and stocky build, but the egg is easily the largest 
of inland duck eggs, not excepting those of the Canvasback. On this ac- 
count it might readily be believed that six should constitute a set, as in this 
instance; but we are told that they sometimes deposit as high as eleven and 
even fourteen. 
As might be expected the young are very large when first hatched, and, 
according to Allan Brooks, at once begin diving for their food, unlike all 
other young ducks, which glean from the surface for several weeks. 
