O L D - S Q U A W 283 



The most common attitude of the male in courtship is to erect the tail, 

 stiffen the neck to its fullest extent, and then lower it toward the fe- 

 male with a sudden bow, the bill being held outward and upward. As 

 the head curves down, the call is emitted .... Many males will crowd 

 around a female, all going through the same performance. It is not long 

 before a fight starts amongst the males, so that the lady of the tourney 

 is in the midst of a struggling, clamorous mass of squabbling knights, 

 each endeavoring to show his qualifications to love by his extravagant 

 gestures or strength .... So impetuous and gallant are the males of 

 this species that they will chase each other for long distances, falling of- 

 ten in the sea and sending the spray flying; down they go under the 

 water and emerge almost together on the surface to continue the chase 

 in mid-air. I have twice seen a male when flying seize another by the 

 nape and both will come tumbling head over heels into the sea in mad 

 confusion." 



The Old-squaw nests on the tundras of the sub-Arctic regions. The 

 nest is placed on the ground in small cup-like hollows, sometimes in the 

 grass near available pools but frequently at considerable distances from 

 water, it is always well lined with down from the mother's breast. The 

 down of this duck is said to be nearly as valuable as that of the eider 

 ducks, possessing almost equally desirable qualities of lightness and re- 

 siliency. The female is a close sitter, not flushing until the intruder is 

 almost upon her. When leaving her nest, great care is ordinarily taken 

 to conceal the eggs from view and they are cleverly covered with the dark 

 brown down, grass and debris so that the nest matches the surroundings 

 and is almost invisible. The number of eggs is from 5 to 17, but the 

 usual clutch is from 5 to 7; the average size is 2.09 by 1.56 inches. Colour 

 of the eggs varies from olive buff to deep olive buff. Incubation requires 

 about three and a half weeks and is performed by the female alone; the 

 male remains close at hand until the eggs are about to hatch, when he 

 flies off and joins the other males on the sea coasts. 



The native people and the foxes, jaegers, and gulls are always on 

 the hunt for nests and take a heavy toll of the eggs of this and other spe- 

 cies. Normally the Old-squaw lays only one set of eggs each season, but 

 when the nest has been robbed, a second or even a third attempt is made 

 to raise a brood; this is why the small downy young are sometimes en- 

 countered as late as the middle or end of August. The lateness of the 

 autumn migration gives ample time for these delayed broods to mature 

 before the time for the southward journey arrives. 



Not only are continual depredations made upon the eggs of these 

 ducks, but the young ducklings are constantly subject to attack by jae- 

 gers, skuas, and glaucous gulls. Millais (1913) relates having witnessed 

 an attack by two parasitic jaegers or "Richardson's skuas" on a brood 

 of Old-squaw ducklings; he says: "One skua swooped down and dis- 

 tracted the mother's attention to one side by hovering over the water. 

 The anxious parent opened her bill and gave a series of grating calls. As 

 the marauder came to the level of the water the long-tailed duck with 



