BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 5S 



larly those of the Wild Goose and Wild Turkey. On coming^ 

 on a nest with eggs, when the bird was absent in search of 

 food, I have always found the eggs covered with feathers and 

 down, although quite out of sight, in the depths of a Wood- 

 pecker's or Squirrel's hole. 



"On the contrary when the nest was placed on the broken 

 branch of a tree it could easily be observed from the ground, 

 on account of the feathers, dead sticks, and withered grasses 

 about it. If the nest is placed immediately over the water, 

 the young, the moment they are hatched, scramble to the 

 mouth of the hole, launch into the air with their little wings 

 and feet spread out and drop into their favorite element; but 

 whenever their birthplace is some distance from it, the mother 

 carries them to it one by one in her bill, holding them so as 

 not to injure their yet tender frame. On several occasions 

 however, when the hole was thirty, forty, or more yards from 

 a bayou or other piece of water, I observed that the mother 

 suffered the young to fall on the grass and dried leaves 

 beneath the tree, and afterward led them directly to the 

 nearest edge of the next pool or creek. At this early age, the 

 young answer to their parents' call with a mellow pee, pee, 

 pee-e^ often and rapidly repeated. The call of the mother at 

 such times is low, soft, and prolonged, resembling the sylla- 

 bles peee, pe-ee. The watch note of the male, which resembles 

 Jioe-eek, is never uttered by the female; indeed, the male him- 

 self seldom uses it, unless alarmed by some uncommon sound, 

 or the sight of a distant enemy, or when intent on calling 

 passing birds of his own species." 



I may be pardoned for my enthusiasm over this mag- 

 nificent duck, when I state that I have enjoyed better op- 

 portunities for carefully studying its habits than of any 

 other species, and the capture of a male in the per- 

 fection of his vernal plumage, was my first attainment 

 in iving shooting some thirty years ago. Without a single 

 stain of blood on it to mar its wondrously beautiful adornment, 

 Mr. Wm. H. Howling, of my city, mounted it for me in the 

 perfection of taxidermic art, so that now after so long a time 

 it is in excellent condition and on .the shelves of the museum 

 of the Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences. It was 

 immortalized in the interests of science in its tragic death, at 

 a spot now embraced in the heart of this great and phenom- 

 enal city. Since that evening, how many occasions for observ- 

 ing the species have I recorded amongst my notes on the 



