110 NOTES ON THE 



even after the ice had formed, leaving only small patches of 

 open water into which they crowded in a dense black mass. 

 Quoting from his memorandum of the 21st, he says: — '-Last 

 night was cold and still, and this morning it is a comical siarht 

 to see them standing on the slippery surface of the ice. When 

 alighting, the impetus of their flight causes them to slide 

 along like a schoolboy on skates. A foot slips from under 

 one, down it goes, sprawling with outstretched wings, but soon 

 regaining its feet to try again. In the unfrozen spots, the 

 water was black with them, mingled with Ducks, the whole 

 looking like a compact black body, while on the edges of the 

 ice, large Mallards and Red-heads stood looking with suspicion 

 towards the spot where I stood. " 



Rev. J. H. Langille's description of many of the habits of this 

 species is so nearly like the notes I find in my own note book, 

 that I should subject myself to the suspicion of plagiarism if I 

 did not either reword them, or quote him, so I accept the latter 

 alternative, with the cheerful acknowledgment that I think him 

 entitled to the copyright, for although the later written, they 

 are the better. He says in his "Our Birds in their Haunts," 

 pp. 405-6; "Its breeding habitat is from Northern New Eng- 

 land, the Great Lakes, and corresponding latitudes, northward. 

 It breeds in such abundance as to be the characteristic bird on 

 St. Clair flats, where they are as common as hens in a farm 

 yard. The nest is in reedy pools or shallow water about rivers, 

 lakes and ponds, composed of dried grasses and sedges, after 

 the manner of the Rails and Gallinules, sometimes tied to the 

 tall clumps of sedges, and yet resting on a mass of floating debris; 

 sometimes resting on the dry ground near their watery abodes. 

 On St. Clair flats it is a floating nest, anchored to the cat-tails 

 and sedges, resembling that of the Common Gallinule, but gen- 

 erally placed further out in the flooded marshes, towards the 

 channels and the lake. 



"Some twelve inches in external diameter, and rising about 

 eight inches above the water, it is almost invariably built of 

 the dried and bleached leaves of the cat- tail; the saucer shaped 

 interior being often lined with fine marsh grass. Like that of 

 the Gallinule, the nest often has a gradual inclination on one 

 side, forming a convenience for the bird to enter from the water. 

 So free is the motion of this nest, that it may rise and fall with 

 the changes of water level, or rock in the storm with perfect 

 safety. 



