THE RUDDY DUCK. 473 



well built of fine colored grasses, circularly laid, or simply 

 a mere matting together of the tops of the green marsh- 

 grass, with a slight addition of some dry flexible material. I 

 found one nest on a hollow side of a floating log. It con- 

 sisted of a few dried grasses and rushes laid in a loose cir- 

 cle. Indeed, the bird inclines to build a very slight nest. 



As well try to catch a weasel asleep as to see this bird 

 leave the nest. Mr. W. H. Collins, however, a well-known 

 taxidermist, of Detroit, Mich., to whom the credit is due 

 of first discovering the nidification of this species in our 

 neighborhood, after carefully identifying the absent bird 

 by the feathers in a well incubated nest, afterwards saw 

 her leave it. She scrambled off like a mud-turtle from a log, 

 and diving from the edge of the nest, which, as usual was 

 over the water, swam in clear sight under the bow of his 

 boat. From personal investigation I have satisfied myself 

 of the accuracy of his painstaking observation. The Ruddy 

 Duck is nearly noiseless, occasionally uttering a weak 

 squak. Its habitat is North America at large. 



The Gadwall or Gray Duck (Chauldasmus streperus), a 

 species of almost world-wide distribution, is about the 

 rarest river Duck on the Niagara. Indeed it is particu- 

 larly a species of the western interior, being abundant 

 in Missouri, and in the regions of the Mississippi generally. 

 As with most others of our river or non-diving Ducks, 

 Audubon satisfied himself as to its breeding in Texas, and 

 there is pretty conclusive evidence that its summer habitat 

 does not extend to the extreme north. Probably the re- 

 gions of the upper Mississippi and Missouri are its principal 

 breeding grounds. Its nest is made on the ground, in marshy 

 places, and is composed of sticks, weeds and grasses; the 6-10 

 smooth, elliptical, cream-colored eggs measuring about 

 -2.00X1.50. 



