I'JA. 'Q^-a-r, Nesting Habits of AnaiidcB in N. Dakota. \_k^. 



They are very early breeders, laying their eggs early in May, and 

 hatching out their young generally before the first of June. One 

 of their nests, found on a small island inhabited by a colony of 

 Double-crested Cormorants, Ring-billed Gulls and a few ducks, 

 was merely a depression in the bare ground among scattered 

 large stones, lined with a few sticks and straws and a quantity of 

 down. This nest, on May 31, had apparently been deserted for 

 some time. 



In a large slough in Nelson County, on June 2, we found a 

 deserted nest containing three eggs, the broken shells of those 

 that had hatched being scattered about the nest. It was in a 

 shallow portion of the slough where the dead flags had been 

 beaten down flat for a space fifty feet square, and not far 

 from a Redhead's nest. The nest was a bulky mass of dead 

 flags, three feet in diameter and but slightly hollowed in the 

 center. 



A similarly located nest was found in a slough in Steele County 

 on June 10 (shown in PI. VI, Fig. 2). This contained only 

 one &^^ which had failed to hatch and was, like the other nest, 

 within a few yards of a Redhead's nest. The proximity of these 

 two Redheads' nests to the nests of the Geese may have been 

 merely a coincidence, but it suggests the possibility that it was 

 done to gain the protection of the larger bird. This suggestion 

 was somewhat strengthened when I saw a skunk foraging in the 

 vicinity ; undoubtedly these animals find an abundant food supply 

 in the numerous nests of ducks and coots in these sloughs. 



The eggs of the Canada Goose are a dull dirty white, and the 

 3 eggs in my collection give the following measurements : 3.60 

 by 2.40, 3.61 by 2.41, and 3.50 by 2.37. 



