AMONG THE WATER FOWL 



near it for anchorage and shade. In location only 

 was it like a Grebe's nest, being dry, deep and 

 bulky, though with little down. A recent storm, 

 probably, had partly upset it, and several of the 

 fifteen large white eggs were lying on the edge or 

 spilled out into the water. It seemed almost im- 

 possible that such a little bird as a Ruddy Duck 

 should have laid that pile of eggs, several times its 

 own weight, in less than three weeks. When I first 

 saw a Ruddy's eggs I could hardly believe they were 

 properly identified, as they are larger than the eggs 

 of the Mallard or the Canvasback. 



Canvasback, Redhead, and Ruddy Ducks can be 

 classed together in the nesting season. They all 

 build elaborate nests in the rushes out over deep 

 water, and when one is found in a slough the other 

 members of the triumvirate are also likely to occur. 

 As though in proof of this, I saw, as I inspected this 

 nest, a female Canvasback, followed by eight young, 

 swimming across the lane of water. Not far away, 

 as later I waded from the boat into the rushes, I 

 came upon a fine nest of the Redhead, canopied 

 over with the dry rushes, with thirteen Redhead 

 eggs and two of the Ruddy Duck, and then, still 

 another, in some long grass growing out of deep 

 water, very bulky and downy, with eleven Redhead 

 eggs and one of the Ruddy. 



But it is not only amid grass and rushes that the 

 nests of Ducks are found, though many people sup- 

 pose this to be the case. To such a sight that I wit- 

 nessed would be a revelation. It was "Memorial 



196 



