Vol. XIX 



igo2 



J Bent, Nesting Habits of A7iatidcB in N. Dakota. i6q 



building their nests in the hollows in the treetops. Baltimore 

 Orioles, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Clay-colored Sparrows, Red- 

 eyed and Warbling Vireos and Yellow Warblers help to swell the 

 chorus and keep the air constantly full of song. I have never seen 

 such an abundance of bird life, not even in the height of the mi- 

 grations, as is to be found in these narrow belts of timber. Besides 

 all these small birds the Golden-eyes have for their companions 

 numerous pairs of Swainson's Hawks and occasional pairs of 

 Ferruginous Rough-legs and Krider's Hawks, nesting in the tops 

 of the taller trees. 



The Golden-eyes choose for their nesting sites the numerous 

 natural cavities which occur in many of the larger trees. They 

 seem to show no preference as to the kind of tree and not much 

 preference as to the size of the cavity, any cavity which is large 

 enough to conceal them being satisfactory. 



The occupied cavity can usually be easily recognized by the pres- 

 ence of one or two pieces of white down clinging to its edges ; some- 

 times considerable of the down is also scattered about on the near- 

 est branches. The first nest that we found, on May 30, was in an 

 exceedingly small cavity in a dead branch of a small elm, about 

 10 feet from the ground. We heard a great scrambling and scratch- 

 ing going on inside as the duck climbed up to the small opening, 

 through which she wriggled out with some difficulty and flew away. 

 I measured the opening carefully and found it only 3 inches wide 

 by 4 J inches high ; the cavity was about 3 feet deep and measured 

 6 inches by 7 inches at the bottom. The 8 fresh eggs which it 

 contained were lying on the bare chips at the bottom of the cavity, 

 surrounded by a little white down. 



On June i we explored a large tract of heavy timber on a prom- 

 ontory extending out into the lake for about half a mile, where 

 we located five nests of the American Golden-eye. 



The first nest was about 20 feet up in the cavity in the trunk of 

 a large swamp oak and contained four eggs, apparently fresh. The 

 second was in the trunk of a large elm and held only one ^g^, evi- 

 dently a last year's &g^. The third, which held five eggs, was in an 

 open cavity in an elm stub about 12 feet from the ground. None 

 of these eggs were taken and doubtless the sets were incomplete. 



While climbing to a Krider's Hawk's nest I noticed an elm stub 



