AMONG THE WATER FOWL 



United States. Numerous individuals had been 

 hanging around these islands all the spring, and I 

 knew they must be breeding somewhere about. 

 This nest was little more than a hollow in the 

 damp earth, with a rim of straw, stems, and sticks, 

 lined with a small amount of dark gray down. The 

 eggs were fresh and cold, the set incomplete. The 

 bird had scraped loam over the nest, and it seemed 

 like digging potatoes to get at the eggs and prepare 

 the nest to photograph. This set me to hunting 

 for more Scoters' nests, and it was but a moment 

 or so before I dug from under a small clump of 

 brush close by a similar nest with only one buried 

 egg, the Scoter having but just begun to lay. 



Then a Gadwall got up from her set of ten 

 white eggs, and, as we proceeded, at every few 

 steps Gadwalls, Scaups, and Baldpates started from 

 their nests. So incessant was the fluttering up of 

 Ducks from beneath our feet that my mind became 

 utterly confused, so far as taking exact account of 

 the various nests was concerned. 



The matter of identifying nests had its difficul- 

 ties. Although subsequent investigation has cleared 

 away most of the uncertainties, I find myself obliged 

 to confess that it is practically impossible, under 

 many circumstances, in the hurry of a Duck's de- 

 parture when flushed from a nest, to distinguish 

 positively, for instance, between the female Gad- 

 wall and Baldpate. The latter seems to have rather 

 more white on the wing-bar, and is of a slightly 

 lighter gray plumage, that is about all. The eggs 

 of both are white, and although sets of the Bald- 

 pate are usually the more creamy, I am not cer- 



190 



