side of my feet, giving me ;i sudden start, and there in a hole 

 underneath a eluni]> of rushes I discovered a beautiful nest of 

 twelve eggs of the American widgeon. i could see the eggs 

 were fresh, and, as I was parched with thirst by the broiling 1 

 sun and we could not reach the water of the lake owing to the 

 belt of mud, 1 took out an ego- drill and, boring a hole in the 

 side. I sucked four eggs and found them very good, and re- 

 freshing. This nest of the baldpate consisted of a hollow in the 

 sand one foot in diameter, and this was thickly lined with grass, 

 and feathers and down, on which rested the twelve pale butt- 

 coloured eggs. The American widgeon appears to be a later 

 breeder than most other ducks. 1 have a clutch of ten eggs that 

 were taken on the 1st of June, 1890, in Miner County, South 

 Dakota, and another clutch of eleven eggs that were collected 

 in Minnesota, .June l()th, and another of seven eggs that were 

 taken , I une !>th. bS!)(), so this species seems to nest late, even 

 much further south than Manitoba. Dr. Cones, in his " Birds 

 of the North-West, says. " In Northern Dakota I was sur- 

 prised to find young widgeons still unable to fly, even as lute 

 as the middle of September, at a time when all other ducks ob- 

 served wereonthe wing." The eggs of the baldpatearelikethose 

 of the European widgeon, pale creamy buff in colour, but are 

 smaller, averaging 2.10x1.50. As we had now more birds and 

 eggs than we could carry, we hid them from hawks and vul- 

 tures, and fastened a piece of paper to some tall rushes, so that 

 we could easily find the spot on our return. We then directed 

 'in- steps to the south shore of the lake, and on our way startled 

 three graceful antelopes, which bounded away at a tremendous 

 ^p'-ed, and were soon out of sight. On reaching the southern 

 end of Rush Lake we found avosets \ery numerous and shot 

 three handsome specimens: they were evidently nesting some- 

 where in the vicinity, but we were unable to find their nests. 

 Three kildeers had nests containing four eggs each, and we 

 also Hushed a Wilson's snipe, which Hew up calling out " escape." 

 and. suiting the action to the word, dashed away and alighted 

 in the rushes some distance oil'. We soon found its nest, a 

 slight hollow in the ground lined with bits of drift rushes. 



