^°^i9^'^l Bent, Nesting Habits of AnatidcB in N. Dakota. I 67 



eastern portion of the State, and in the Turtle Mountain region, 

 than elsewhere ; it is certainly rare in the prairie region and the 

 Devils Lake region visited by us. My field experience with the 

 Ring-necked Duck was very limited and was based on very unsat- 

 isfactory evidence, but I will give it for what it is worth. 



On June 12, while exploring some extensive wet meadow^s about 

 the sources of a branch of the Goose River in Steele County, 

 I flushed a strange duck from . her nest ; she flew away at 

 first for a hundred yards or so and then returned circling past me 

 two or three times within gunshot, so that I had a fairly good 

 look at her; I judged from her appearance and gait that she was 

 a Scaup, but could not see that she possessed the conspicuous 

 white speculum so characteristic of both the American and the 

 Lesser Scaup. Not being satisfied with the identification I made 

 two subsequent visits to the nest, intending to shoot the bird, but 

 she was too quick for me the first time, and was not there the 

 second time. The following day we all visited the nest and 

 attempted to creep up cautiously and shoot the bird, but she rose 

 before we were near enough to stop her. 



The eggs were unmistakably Scaup's and, as we could not 

 identify the bird as either of the other species, we concluded that 

 they must belong to the Ring-necked Duck. The nest was well 

 x;oncealed in thick grass in a rather open place in the meadow 

 about ten yards from the river ; it was made of bits of dry grass 

 and thickly lined with very dark gray down. The ten eggs which 

 it contained were nearly fresh, and are not separable in size, shape 

 or color from those of the Lesser Scaup. 



Mr. Job found a nest of the Ring-necked Duck in the Turtle 

 Mountains, where he started a female from her nest on June 14 

 1898. I quote from his notes in 'The Auk' for April, 1899, as 

 follows : " It was in a reedy, boggy bayou, or arm of a lake, which 

 was full of Bitterns, Black Terns, and Bronzed, Red-winged and 

 Yellow-headed Blackbirds. I was on my way out to photograph 

 a Bittern's nest already found, and was struggling along more 

 than up to my knees in mud and water, w'hen a smallish Duck 

 flushed almost at my feet from some thick dead rushes, disclosing 

 twelve buffy eggs, nearly fresh. The clear view within a yard of 

 the pearl gray speculum and the total absence of white on the 



